More Sanctions on Iran

President Obama signed an executive order today imposing even harsher sanctions against Iran, including ones against Iran's Central Bank. The sanctions require that companies trading on US stock exchanges release any information on any business with Iran and increase penalties on energy and uranium mining joint ventures with Iran. They also allow for penalties against financial institutions in other countries, who do business with the Central Bank. The United States and the European Union have been imposing strict sanctions against Iran's oil industries, and the EU is also considering striking against the Central Bank. A big shock was when long time ally China cut it's purchasing of Iranian oil in half. Only Russian vetoes have kept the United Nations from adding it's own sanctions.

The world sees the sanctions as the best way to break Iran into stopping it's nuclear enrichment programs, which Iran maintains are entirely for peaceful purposes. However, the latest reports from the International Atomic Energy Agency, state that they are convinced that Iran is seeking to build nuclear weapons. Israel, the US, the EU, and most of the world have been accusing Iran of just that, since they began the program.

In response to the sanctions, Iran has made repeated threats to close the Strait of Hormuz if the sanctions are actually enacted, which they are not due to, til this summer. Both Israel and the US have stated their willingness to attack Iran, if necessary, to keep it from gaining nuclear weapons. Russia has countered that by stating that any attack on Tehran would be considered an attack on Moscow. And just within the last week Iran restated that it would attack any country who allowed itself to be used as a base against it.