JAN. 12 – Businessweek.com features an interesting analysis from the Bloomberg news service, titled: ”Tough Sanctions May Not Persuade Iran to Quit Nuclear Program,” by Indira A.R. Lakshmanan.

JAN. 11 – Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, called today upon the international community to impose “tough sanctions” against Iran.
Speaking at a Likud faction meeting, Netanyahu said he would raise the issue next week at a special joint session of the German and Israeli governments in Berlin. 
“The international community must adopt tough sanctions against Iran, now,” said the Prime [...]

JAN. 7 – “As long as the Iran conversation was broad and dealt only with ’sanctions,’  the Congress, the White House and the pro-Israel community seemed to be on the same page,” reports JTA Washington Bureau Chief Ron Kampeas.  “But now that Iran has rejected just about every bouquet sent its way and the talk [...]

JAN. 6 -  Zhang Yesui, the Chinese ambassador to the United Nations, said in a press conference Tuesday that his country opposed tougher sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program.
“Sanctions themselves are not an end,” he said. According to a report in today’s New York Times, the Chinese buy about 15 percent of their oil from Iran.
“State-run companies like the [...]

JAN. 5 – Some morning headlines in the Israeli press are greeting with skepticism yesterday’s comments about Iran by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
On the leading Israeli news site, YNET, the main headline reads, “Clinton:  U.S. Not Closing the Door to Talks With Iran.”  In a four-line sub-head, it is noted that Clinton’s remarks come “five days after a [...]

JAN. 2 – Israel’s NRG news web site reports that Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister, Danny Ayalon is hinting that the West may act to topple the Iranian regime.
“The world is uniting against Iran,” Ayalon said at a Saturday event in Tel Aviv. “In a month we will see sanctions against her. I am not sure [...]

JAN. 2 – The New York Daily News, in an editorial published today, is calling for tough action against Iran.
“Enough with namby-pambyism,” says the paper. “Easily evaded measures like squeezing the finances of the country’s Revolutionary Guard are highly unlikely to prod Ahamedinejad and Khamenei to delay production, let alone forsake nukes altogether.”

JAN. 2 – The New York Times is reporting tonight that according to the Obama administration, domestic unrest in Iran and signs of unexpected trouble in its nuclear program are making Iran’s leaders, particularly vulnerable to strong and immediate new sanctions.” 
The Times also reports that according to Obama administration officials, Iran’s bomb-development effort was “seriously derailed” by the exposure three [...]

 JAN. 1 – Sobering headlines about Iran, this  New Year’s Day.
The Jerusalem Post’s Hilary Leila Kreiger and Haviv Rettig Gur, in their dispatch from Washington, report the  US has “toughened its rhetoric” and is “looking increasingly to sanctions rather than diplomacy,” now that its deadline to Iran has passed.  The article  includes an interview with Israel’s Ambassador to Washington, Michael [...]

DEC. 31 – With the expiration, tonight, of Washington’s ultimatum to Iran to agree to an imposed uranium enrichment deal or  else face  “crippling sanctions,” a number of Israeli media outlets are already noting the Obama administration’s planned change in tone.
Israel’s Channel 10 correspondent in Washington, Gil Tamari, reports that Washington instead plans to impose “targeted sanctions,” so as not to [...]