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The moves come in a week when Republican president candidate Mitt Romney has charged that Obama hasn't been tough enough on Iran, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has complained that international sanctions and diplomacy have not set back the Iranian program "one iota."
Mark Dubowitz, a sanctions advocate at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, praised the administration's steps.
He said the White House faces a perception that it has been "dragged by Congress into adopting its most forceful sanctions." The executive order "provides a flexible tool that allows the administration to go on the offensive against both the regime and its critics."
Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.), ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and lead sponsor of some elements of the bill, said that unless Iran agreed to end the nuclear program "we must continue to pursue even tougher measures."
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