US eyes global sanctions on Iran leaders: report

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States is pushing Europe
and Japan to use broad sanctions to financially pressure Iran’s
leadership if diplomacy fails to resolve an international
dispute over Iran’s nuclear activities, the Washington Post
reported in its Monday editions.

The newspaper said the plan would target every Iranian
official the Bush administration sees as linked to nuclear
enrichment as well as terrorism, government corruption,
suppression of religious or democratic freedom and violence in
Iraq, Lebanon, Israel and the Palestinian territories.

It would restrict the Tehran government’s access to foreign
currency and global markets, shut its overseas accounts and
freeze assets held in Europe and Asia, the newspaper reported,
citing internal government memos and interviews with three U.S.
officials.

The plan was developed by a Treasury Department task force
that reports directly to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice,
the Washington Post said.

Consideration of global economic sanctions follows decades
of unilateral sanctions imposed by the United States against
Iran.

The United Nations is demanding that Iran halt enrichment
activities that the West says are a cover for developing
weapons. Iran says it only wants to make fuel for nuclear
power.

Internal U.S. assessments suggest sanctions would not
impact Iran without hurting some U.S. allies, the Washington
Post said.

According to the report, U.S. officials hope the allies
will carry out the punitive measures if Iran refuses a package
of incentives the Europeans are preparing to offer soon.

Separately, The New York Times reported that Iran appeared
to have slowed it’s efforts to produce nuclear fuel, according
to European diplomats who had reviewed reports from inspectors
inside the country.

The newspaper quoted the diplomats as saying the slowdown
(in uranium enrichment) could be an effort by Iran to cool
tensions in the nuclear standoff with the West and possibly for
Washington to begin direct talks with Tehran.

“The pace is more diplomatic than technical,” a senior
European diplomat who monitors the Iranian program was quoted
as saying.. “They could probably have gone faster. But they
don’t want to provoke.”

But the Times said Bush administration hard-liners believed
any slowdown in enrichment might just be a tactical ploy by the
government of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.