US Puts Squeeze on Iran Amid Calls for UN Sanctions

(March 10) -- The United States is intensifying pressure on Iran commercially and diplomatically amid the push for new international sanctions targeting Tehran's nuclear program.

President Barack Obama late Wednesday signed executive orders renewing the International Emergency Economic Powers Act "to deal with the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy and economy of the United States constituted by the actions and policies of the government of Iran."

The order, initiated by President Bill Clinton in 1995, grants the president emergency powers to maintain sanctions against Iran. And though it was due to expire next week, Obama's action comes the same day his administration reached out to Saudi Arabia for support against Iran and as two multinational companies joined a growing roster of firms that have stopped doing business in Iran amid uncertainty over future sanctions.

The British energy giant Royal Dutch Shell said it has stopped all sales of gas to Iran, which has limited refining capacity despite its significant oil production. Several other key fuel suppliers to Iran recently decided to halt gas sales there as well. Shell said it might also consider pulling out of two oil-field development projects, but its language on the matter suggested that might be more of a business decision than a political one.

Still, the business price of defying the campaign by the United States, Britain, France and others to put pressure on Iran could be seen in another announcement, by industrial machine-parts maker Ingersoll Rand.

In a letter to the New York-based lobbying group United Against Nuclear Iran, Ingersoll Rand Chief Executive Michael Lamach was first defensive about the company's relationship with Iran, noting that only foreign subsidiaries were involved, and then promised to end all business there.

"In light of the very real and escalating concerns about the intentions of the current regime in Iran, many leading global companies around the world have opted to refrain from doing business with Iran," Lamach wrote. "Ingersoll Rand now joins with these companies, and effective immediately will have its foreign subsidiaries stop accepting orders for all products, components and parts where the subsidiary knows such products, components or parts would be destined for Iran."

General Electric, Caterpillar and the German conglomerate Siemens have made similar decisions to end their business in Iran following public pressure from United Against Nuclear Iran.

The trend may encourage the Obama administration but is unlikely to be as biting as the regime of sanctions the U.S. and its allies are pursuing in negotiations at the U.N. Security Council.

Backed by suspicions voiced at the International Atomic Energy Agency, the West is insisting that Iran halt the enrichment of uranium, an activity that experts believe could quickly lead to the production of atomic weapons. Iran insists the goals of its nuclear program are entirely civilian, but analysts at the IAEA and elsewhere have highlighted several technical steps taken by Iran that seem to have little application outside the pursuit of atomic weaponry.

State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said Wednesday the administration expected companies "to step up" as a consensus on sanctions builds at the Security Council. And though China, which can veto any resolution, has been resistant, when Crowley was asked about a draft resolution rumored to be shared with Russia, he answered: "There is no draft resolution -- yet."

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, meanwhile, was in Riyadh to address and capitalize on Saudi fears about a potential nuclear weapon just on the other side of the Persian Gulf. Senior Defense Department officials noted the Saudis are also worried about the effects Iran's nuclear ambitions could have on the minority Shiite Muslim communities in majority-Sunni Saudi Arabia and other countries in the region.

"Secretary Gates has said many times that continued Iranian nuclear development doesn't make them safe," Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said. He cited the sharing of intelligence and radar information among the U.S. and several states in the region as proof such worries are having an effect. The U.S. has also offered to bolster missile defenses of its allies in the Persian Gulf, and Gates was seeking diplomatic cooperation as well.

"We are certainly hopeful that the Saudis will use whatever influence they have, which is considerable, in this region and throughout the world to try to help us in our efforts at the U.N. so that we can get meaningful sanctions enacted against Iran," Morrell told reporters.

Gates' visit to Riyadh followed a stop in Afghanistan, where he accused Iran of supporting insurgents even as it tried to improve relations with the neighboring Afghan government.

On Wednesday, it was Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's turn to visit the Afghan capital of Kabul, where he threw the same charges back at the U.S., accusing Washington of "playing a double game" by backing Afghan fighters against the Soviet Union and fighting them now, The Associated Press reported.

"They themselves created terrorists, and now they're saying that they are fighting terrorists," Ahmadinejad said at a news conference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.