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Iran's Evasions
The U.S., Israel and European nations accuse Iran of hiding covert nuclear weapons activities; Iran insists its program is for civilian energy and medical research.
Iran is "under intense, multilateral sanctions pressure, and we will continue to ratchet up the pressure so long as Iran refuses to address the international community's well-founded concerns about its nuclear program," Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David Cohen said in the statement yesterday.
The actions are "our next step on that path, taking direct aim at disrupting Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs as well as its deceptive efforts to use front companies to sell and move its oil," he said.
Mark Dubowitz, executive director of the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said Obama should support pending legislation that would blacklist Iran's entire energy sector, barring international companies that do business in the U.S. from engaging in petroleum- or gas-trade or investments with Iran.
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