Strategic Assessment

Following a failed attempt to engage Iran in meaningful negotiations, the Obama administration is currently pursuing a second approach comprising stronger sanctions and additional economic and diplomatic pressures. However, this policy may be limited to the short term, and in 2011, if it deems that the policy was not successful, the administration will have to choose between two undesirable and highly problematic options: to reconsider the military option or to accept ongoing uranium enrichment in Iran, and later to accept Iran as a threshold state or evenas a state possessing nuclear weapons. This essay reviews the  sanctions route the administration is currently pursuing and explores the options it may pursue in the coming years.