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.”
