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By Ulrike Putz in Beirut, Lebanon
Iranian President Ahmadinejad has
little reason to fear the impact of Western sanctions. Instead he is
pushing ahead with uranium enrichment efforts.

 Iranian President Ahmadinejad has little reason to fear the impact of
Western sanctions. Instead he is pushing ahead with uranium enrichment
efforts.

The West is sharpening the tone of its threats against
Iran, but Tehran so far remains unimpressed and has even begun enriching
uranium to 20 percent. Any new sanctions imposed against Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad's regime are likely to be just as ineffective as existing
ones.

Western tensions with Iran are escalating once again, but
will the West take action this time? The United States, France, German
Chancellor Angela Merkel and her foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle,
are all demanding that the "pressure" on Iran be ratcheted up. It's time
for new sanctions, they say, to force Iran to come around in the
dispute over its nuclear program. If forced, they say they are even
prepared to take action independently of the United Nations Security
Council, where China has been hard-nosed in its refusal to agree to
further punitive measures against the regime in Tehran.

The
threats, though, have left Iran cold. Indeed, Tehran hasn't even
bothered to respond. Instead the country is starting to enrich its ow... >>>