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Despite a display of global arm-twisting, the Obama administration has fallen short in its latest effort to isolate Iran.

It's true the U.S. was able on June 8 to round up 12 of 15 votes in the United Nations Security Council to impose a fourth round of sanctions on the Islamic Republic. Only Brazil and Turkey, countries that had been working on a solution to the U.S.-Iran crisis, voted no and strongly condemned the resolution [1], whereas Lebanon abstained.

But while the U.S. promoted the sanctions resolution as proof that its approach to Iran has world support, it arrogantly disregards the fact that, the day before the vote, the 118 countries of the Non-Aligned Movement reaffirmed their support for Iran's right to develop nuclear power for peaceful energy purposes. [2] Furthermore, as the EU considers new unilateral sanctions on Iran, on Sunday the Parliamentary Union of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, representing 57 Islamic countries, strongly condemned the sanctions resolution. [3]

And if the U.S. expected the new sanctions to deepen political divisions within Iran itself, it had precisely the opposite effect. The sanctions vote came just four days before the first anniversary of Iran's controversial presidential election - but powerful opposition backer Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani chose that day to urge Iranian unity against the sanctions. [4]