Tough New Iran Sanctions Could Backfire, Experts Warn

In the more than five years since the George W. Bush administration's misdirected adventurism in Iraq, the fundamental balance of power in the Middle East has shifted.

Iran's mullahs, once fearful of meeting the same fate as the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, have become the main beneficiaries of the U.S. quagmire in Iraq. And they have ramped up their defiance over the current wedge issue in the twisted path of U.S.-Iranian relations: the nuclear program.

The recent conservative consolidation of Iran's parliament, coupled with the announcement last week that 6,000 new advanced centrifuges were up and running at the Natanz uranium-enrichment facility, suggests that U.S. pressure alone – in the form of unilateral economic sanctions – has not deterred Iran from continuing its drive toward mastering the nuclear fuel cycle.

While the Bush administration has maintained a consistent policy supporting rigid sanctions against Tehran, a bill currently making its way through the Senate may potentially further undermine the international support Washington seeks to confront Iran and "change its behavior."

As Washington tries to bolster international cooperation over how to deal with Iran's nuclear program, the domestic push for congressionally mandated sanctions has been spearheaded by lobby groups such as the Israel Project, the neoconservative think-tank Center for Security Policy (CSP), and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). More