US may take tough line against Iran after satellite adventure

Apparently alarmed by Iran launching an indigenous satellite, the Obama administration may take a tough line with Tehran while dealing with nuclear ambitions of the Islamic nation.
 
The US may take a tough line with Tehran in coming months, even as it signals a willingness to move towards direct talks with Iranian officials, a media report said on Wednesday, citing Obama's aides and experts.
 
While, Obama is expected to soften the Bush administration's line against talking to Iran, the aides told but he may also seek to toughen sanctions, aides told New York Times.
 
Iran's announcement on Tuesday that it launched its first satellite into orbit may reinforce the impulse to get tough.
 
Obama told the Arabic-language television station Al Arabiya last week that "if countries like Iran are willing to unclench their fist, they will find an extended hand from us." He has also spoken recently of the need to treat Iran with "mutual respect."
 
But among the circle of experts advising Obama on Iran, several have also advocated increasing the pressure against Tehran, the Times said.
 
Dennis B Ross, the longtime Middle East peace negotiator who is expected to be named to a senior post handling Iran, has long argued that the US must persuade America's European allies to increase economic pressure against Iran, the paper said.
 
A Bipartisan Policy Centre task force that included Ross issued a report in September saying that "the Europeans make war more likely if they do not strengthen sanctions against Iran and effectively end all commercial relations," the paper said.

Gary Samore, a former Clinton administration arms control negotiator who is expected to become Obama's non-proliferation czar, has argued that any carrot offered to Iran should be accompanied by a bigger stick, the Times said.
 
Samore has favoured offering Tehran warmer relations which include lifting certain American sanctions against Iran and assuring the Iranian leadership that the Americans will not pursue regime change.
 
But the Times said, Samore has also argued that such an offer is not enough, unless it comes backed by the threat of stronger sanctions from the US, Europe, Russia and China, like, for instance, a ban on foreign investment in Iran's oil and gas industry.
 
The goal of getting Iran to agree to suspend its uranium enrichment eluded the Bush administration and America's European allies, in part, some foreign policy analysts say, because Russia, China, and some European countries have balked at the idea of increasing economic pressure on Iran.
 
The United States and other Western countries suspect that Iran is enriching uranium to produce nuclear weapons, an accusation that Iran has repeatedly denied.
 
Obama's aides, the Times said, are hoping that he can talk those countries into doing for him what they were unwilling to do for Bush.
 
"I think Obama's trip in April will be very important," one administration official was quoted as saying. He was referring to Obama's expected trip to attend the NATO summit meeting in Strasbourg, France, where he will meet with a number of European leaders for the first time as the US President.

The paper quoted several European diplomats as saying that France, Britain and Germany might be willing to consider sanctions if the Obama administration makes an effort to improve the atmosphere with Iran first.
 
American policy toward Iran is also likely to be complicated by presidential elections scheduled for June, the paper said, adding that an overture by the US would raise two kinds of risks -- that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran would benefit politically from such a gesture.
 
Ahmadinejad may choose to rebuff Washington to score political points before the voting.
 
At the same time, several experts told the paper, the Obama administration cannot afford to sit on its hands, in part because any further delay in persuading Iran to change course would give Tehran more time to enrich uranium.