Rick Santorum blasted President Obama’s Iran policy as a “colossal failure,” saying it would be “reckless” not do something to stop Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
Santorum’s accusation comes at a time when the Obama administration has been seeing results from its policy of ramping up pressure on Iran to curtail its nuclear program. The administration has already put in place the toughest sanctions ever imposed on the Iranian government, including new measures targeting, for the first time, Iran’s entire financial system.
The Treasury Department on Monday designated Iran’s third-largest bank as subject to new sanctions. Earlier this month, Obama also signed into law a raft of tough new sanctions that would penalize any foreign financial institution that does business with the Central Bank of Iran.
As part of broader U.S.-led efforts to exert pressure on Iran, European Union governments on Monday agreed to ban new contracts to buy, transport or import Iranian crude oil.
Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., one of the authors of the sanctions on Iran's central bank, told National Journal last week that the sanctions policy has been working in the last month, amid indications that Japan, South Korea, and India are contemplating reductions of their Iranian oil purchases. Even China is negotiating for significant price reductions, he said. With the EU decision on Monday, Iran's rial currency plunged to a new record low, according to Reuters.
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