• The following is from an editorial in the Chicago Tribune:
In the 1993 movie "Groundhog Day," Bill Murray plays a character who is doomed to repeat the same day over and over. Western diplomats negotiating with Iran over its nuclear program must be having the same experience. The most recent high-level negotiation over Iran's nuclear program ended last week with the promise of another session in April.
The Iranians have played a game with the West for a decade, rejecting proposals, hinting that maybe next time they'd compromise and halt their nuclear program.
There's been a reasonable resolution on the table for months. The U.S. and its allies demand that Iran close its underground enrichment fortress at Fordo and ship its higher enriched uranium out of the country. That's important because a stockpile of higher enriched uranium could be more quickly converted into bomb fuel. In return, the West would ease economic sanctions on Iran in stages.
Western negotiators reportedly have softened demands in an attempt to reach a deal. The West would settle for a suspension of uranium enrichment at Fordo. Iran would be allowed to keep some of its higher-enriched fuel.
Republican Sen. Mark Kirk summarized this backpedaling as "appeasement."
He's right. The U.S. and its allies should be dialing up pressure on Tehran.
Economic sanctions are bleeding Iran. The value of Iran's currency has cratered. Inflation rages. People in Iran are angry.
Yet Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, needs more convincing to halt his country's rogue nuclear program. He's so callous, The New York Times reported, that "he is telling visitors that the sanctions are hurting the United States more than they are hurting Iran."
"The people may be suffering in Iran but the supreme leader isn't, and he's the only one who counts," one senior U.S. official told the Times.
Rep. Ed Royce, a California Republican, and Rep. Eliot Engel, a New York Democrat, have offered legislation designed to boost the cost to Iran for its defiance. The goal: a complete banking and trade embargo against Iran.
We've long supported such an embargo. We're told an upcoming Senate proposal will be even tougher.
A new economic squeeze might not persuade Khamenei to abandon Iran's nuclear ambitions, but it remains the best option short of military intervention. Groundhog Day negotiations haven't gotten the job done. Time is running out.
