sanctions

WEEKLY STANDARD contributors Reuel Marc Gerecht and Mark Dubowitz write in today's Washington Post that as in the wake of Libya, President Obama appears to have grown more comfortable projecting American power. As such, "Syria will be his real test. The arguments for supporting Syrian protesters are easily as strong as those mustered to save the people of Benghazi."

The authors note that the strategic conditions in Syria are favorable for U.S. action:

Josh Rogin reports that the Treasury Department has announced new sanctions of Syria:

Berlin—In separate efforts, Republican congressmen Mike Conaway and Peter King have confronted the world's third largest shipping company—the French-owned CMA CGM—for enabling Iranian arms to be smuggled aboard container ships.

In today's Wall Street Journal Reuel Marc Gerecht and Mark Dubowitz discuss a novel approach to sanctions on Iran:

Haaretz reports: 

As Iran continues to flout United Nations Security Council resolutions on nuclear proliferation, policy­makers in United States and Europe have come to view tough economic and financial sanctions as perhaps the last peaceful means of bringing the Islamic Republic into line.

Berlin

Only hours before German chancellor Angela Merkel welcomed Israel prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Berlin on Thursday, her government did a deal worth billions with the greatest threat to Israel’s existence.

The Obama administration made the correct decision earlier this week to impose sanctions on Belarusneft, a subsidiary of the Belarusian petrochemical company Belneftekhim, for doing business with Iran. But it’s small beer – Belarusneft is hardly a major player in Iran’s energy industry. And this latest announcement of sanctions suggests to some in Congress that the administration is not really that serious about enforcing sanctions on Iran after all.

It got lost amid the remarkable dispatches from Egypt and the broader Middle East, but last week Assistant Secretary of State Arturo Valenzuela revealed some big news about Hugo Chávez and Iran. Speaking to a House subcommittee on February 15, he said the U.S. government is investigating whether Venezuela recently defied American sanctions by sending gasoline to the Islamic Republic.

U.S. frustration with German chancellor Angela Merkel and her foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle, seems to have reached a breaking point this week. Germany’s recalcitrant position about shutting down Iran’s main financial conduit in Europe – the Hamburg-based European-Iranian Trade Bank (EIH) – prompted a bipartisan group of U.S. senators on February 1 to issue a strongly worded letter to German foreign minister Guido Westerwelle.

Berlin

Switzerland’s Social Democratic controlled Foreign Ministry is upset with THE WEEKLY STANDARD’s criticism of how its foreign policies serve as a crutch for Iran’s drive to obtain nuclear weapons and finance Hamas and Hezbollah.