NEWSWEEK, December 12, 2009 – The Obama administration has approved an aggressive plan to ratchet up sanctions on Iran in an effort to squeeze that country’s economy, a senior administration official tells NEWSWEEK. The centerpiece of the plan calls for the Treasury Department to target the front companies of the hated Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a force that is notorious for harassing and killing pro-democracy protesters. “It’s important for Obama that the United States do exactly what it says it’s going to do,” says the senior official.
“We said at the end of the year we would turn to sanctions” if diplomacy to put an end to Iran’s nuclear program didn’t produce results. That time has now come, the official says, adding, “Nobody is going to say to the United States, ‘You’re just like the Bush administration.’ We tried the engagement route.”
The key figure in the administration’s effort is Stuart Levey, undersecretary of the Treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence.
Levey noted in an interview that the IRGC’s business interests have been steadily taking over the country’s economy.
(Most recently, the IRGC bought up a controlling interest in the Telecommunication Company of Iran-an $8 billion deal that potentially enables it to tighten its grip over the country’s telephone and Internet systems).