FEB. 3 – “German companies, long Iran’s biggest trading partners in Europe, are finding it increasingly difficult to do business there as the United States, Israel and others campaign for tougher United Nations sanctions in response to the country’s nuclear program,” reports the New York Times.

FEB. 2 – “Italian oil company Eni SpA (ENI.MI) has canceled a development phase of a field in Iran, Italy’s prime minister said on Tuesday, as Rome moves to block new oil and gas investments there,” reports Reuters.

JAN. 31 – “It is time for President Obama and other leaders to ratchet up the pressure with tougher sanctions,” said the New York Times in an editorial, Saturday.

JAN. 29 – “The Senate passed a bill on Thursday that would allow President Obama to expand sanctions against Iran to pressure the Islamic republic to drop its nuclear weapons ambitions,” reports CNN.

JAN. 28 – “The Obama administration will this week introduce a paper to the permanent U.N. Security Council members and Germany outlining Iranian individuals and firms to be targeted in a new sanctions regime, said senior officials involved in the diplomacy,” reports the Wall Street Journal.

JAN. 27 – From the Jerusalem Post:
Editorial: “Crying Wolf on Iran.”
Articles: ‘Iran, Nazi Germany Must be Compared,’ an interview with Israel’s Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman; and Merkel: Iran’s Tme is up, It’s Time to Discuss Sanctions 

JAN. 27 – “When it comes to appeasing the Islamic Republic, no other Western nation has stooped lower than Italy,” wrote journalist Giuilo Meotti in the Wall Street Journal on January 14. Now, a spokesman for the Italian goverment, and the President of machine-maker, Seli, responds.

JAN. 27 -  ”…Failure to use the pressure of diplomacy and sanctions makes some future confrontation more likely not because the United States would (or should) attack Iran but that Iranian aggression will trigger conflicts in the region, whether or not America participates and whether or not Israel ever attacks Iranian nuclear installations,” writes Barry Rubin, director [...]

JAN. 27 - ”Regime change in Tehran is the best nonproliferation policy,” writesRobert Kagan in the Washington Post. 
And from “It’s the Economy, Stupid!” Department:
“Any attack on Iran would drive oil prices up dramatically from already high levels, and risk sending the fragile global economy back into financial crisis,” write Henri J. Barkey and Uri Dadush in the [...]

JAN. 27 – “U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is using meetings in London this week to press ahead with imposing tough new international sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program,” reports the AP.
And in Germany:
“German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Tuesday that time and patience were running out on Iran’s nuclear program and that [...]

JAN. 27 – “Companies that do business with Iran appear to be getting the message that time is running out,” reports Reuters.

JAN. 27 - ”German industrial conglomerate Siemens AG will stop doing business in Iran by the middle of 2010, the company said Wednesday, as international pressure grows to isolate the country over its disputed nuclear program,” reports ABC News.

JAN. 18 – “A key meeting aimed at tackling Iran’s suspected nuclear arms programme has ended in failure after a low-level Chinese delegate blocked a new round of sanctions against the Islamic republic,” reports James Bone.

JAN. 18 – “If we don’t apply sanctions, crippling sanctions against this Iranian tyranny, when shall we apply them?” asked Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, during a visit today to Germany. “If not now, when? The answer is now.” See this dispatch from the Jerusalem Post and AP.

JAN. 18 -  ”German Chancellor Angela Merkel says her country will back tougher sanctions against Iran if the country doesn’t change its tune on its nuclear program,” reports the Associated Press.

JAN. 17 – According to the Associated Press, representatives of six nations failed to come to agreement on imposing new sanctions against Iran.

JAN. 16 – In a Saturday editorial, the Los Angeles Times has called for “tougher sanctions” against Iran.
“Unilateral measures imposed by the U.S. are ineffective, but gaining consensus among Security Council members will be a continuing challenge,” says the paper. “The administration may have no choice but to try. Even so, no one should expect sanctions [...]

JAN. 15 – According to an Associated Press dispatch on the Jerusalem Post web site, U.S. Undersecretary of State William Burns is warning Iran of “consequences” if it does not comply with international solutions to limit its uranium enrichment program.

JAN. 15 -”The Obama administration will not initiate an offensive campaign against Iran,” predicted Israeli lawmaker and Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman Tzachi Hanegbi at a New York  forum yesterday, according to several Israeli media reports. 
Hanegbi, who is a member of the opposition Kadima Party, said the United States will not succeed in eliciting allied support [...]

A wide-ranging interview with Raymond Tanter, the prominent Georgetown University lecturer and leading expert on  U.S. policy options toward Iran.