WASHINGTON — The Bush administration's new package of sanctions against Iran widens the gap between the United States and its European allies over how to confront Tehran.
For two years, the administration has sought to work closely with Europeans and other world powers, convinced that collective action offered the best chance to pressure Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions.
But efforts to push through a third round of United Nations sanctions snagged and prospects for a new international coalition to impose economic penalties appear unlikely, so the administration decided to strike out on its own Thursday.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. announced unilateral sanctions that aim to cut off Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, three key Iranian banks and others from any contact with the worldwide U.S. financial system.
The State Department designated Iran as a state sponsor of terrorism in 1984. The sanctions imposed Thursday are aimed at any remaining financial ties.
Although few such ties are left between U.S. firms and Iranians, officials hope that the effect will be powerfully amplified with other international companies and banks shunning the Iranians to avoid jeopardizing their contacts with the United States.
Advocates say this approach will hit the Iranian elite where it most hurts. But it also puts the United States on a separate track from the Europeans. And U.S. intervention in European business interests could deepen the unwillingness of European countries that already are reluctant to take part in any U.S. actions.
Rice stressed that the United States was committed to a diplomatic solution, although she followed that comment with a warning to Tehran, saying if it chose a path of confrontation, the U.S. and other countries would "resist these threats."
The new steps are bound to appeal to administration and congressional hard-liners, led by Vice President Dick Cheney, who favor a tough U.S. approach to Iran. However, some Democrats criticized the announcement as an indication that President Bush considers military action a first resort.
The U.S. move was praised by the British government, but was considered unlikely to be welcomed by others, such as Germany.
"Those [in Europe] who were reluctant yesterday will probably be more so tomorrow," said one senior European official in Washington, speaking on condition of anonymity in keeping with diplomatic protocol.
