World Powers

The Obama administration, which labored for months to impose tough new United Nations sanctions against Iran, now is pushing in the opposite direction against Congress as it crafts U.S. sanctions that the White House fears may go too far. Administration officials have begun negotiations with congressional leaders, who are working on versions of House and Senate bills that would punish companies that sell refined petroleum products to Iran or...

Ric Burns, the Burns who isn't Ken but whose work — including "The Way West" and "New York: A Documentary Film" — is very much of a piece with that of his better-known brother, has a new film, "Into the Deep: America, Whaling & the World," premiering Monday as part of the PBS series "The American Experience." In the house style, established back in 1990 by Ken's "The Civil War," which Ric co-produced and co-wrote, it is ambitious, embracing the metaphors as well as the facts.

China insisted Tuesday that it has not shifted its approach on Iran's nuclear program, despite White House claims on Monday that Beijing had become more open to sanctions on Tehran. Jiang Yu, a spokeswoman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, told reporters in Beijing that "China has always believed that sanctions and pressure cannot fundamentally resolve the issue" of concern about Iran's nuclear program, according to the official New China News Agency. She said that China "upholds its consistent stance on the Iran nuclear issue."

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton warned China on Friday that it faced international pressure and increasing isolation unless it joined other world powers in sanctioning Iran to try to halt Tehran's nuclear ambitions. The admonishment from Clinton came on the same day the Pentagon announced more than $6 billion in arms sales to Taiwan, a move certain to infuriate Beijing and add a new complication to the U.S.-Chinese relationship. Clinton, speaking at a leading French military academy in Paris, said that China and five other leading nations had been united in trying to persuade Iran to halt uranium enrichment that they fear is aimed at developing nuclear weaponry.

This week's indictment of three Glendale men for allegedly smuggling vacuum pumps and other industrial equipment to Iran via the United Arab Emirates is the latest reminder of how easily and frequently U.S. trade sanctions against Tehran have been violated. The charges were reported as the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany prepared to meet in New York today to discuss tougher economic measures for pressing Iran to halt its uranium enrichment program. Often called "the liberal alternative" to war, economic sanctions have long been favored by world powers over military action to achieve their foreign policy goals, and the Obama administration sees sanctions as the logical response to Iran's failure to accept an offer to ship its uranium stockpile to France and Russia for conversion into nuclear fuel there.

The Obama administration signaled its intention Friday to push for new sanctions against Iran, warning that tough new measures are likely now and urging reluctant nations not to circumvent them. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, who is visiting Iraq, said world powers soon would agree on "significant additional sanctions." Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, meanwhile, warned in Washington that Latin American countries, in particular, will face "consequences" if they "flirt" with the Islamic Republic.

In unusually direct language, the outgoing chief of the United Nations' nuclear watchdog agency on Thursday took Tehran to task for failing to resolve unanswered questions about its nuclear program and lamented a "dead end" in resolving the standoff between the Islamic Republic and world powers. Mohamed ElBaradei, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said world powers had made no progress over the last year in settling concerns about Iran's nuclear program, which the West worries is meant to ultimately produce weapons but Tehran insists is for civilian purposes only.

On his first official visit to Asia, President Obama has sought to reassure China that the United States does not want to contain its rise, but rather welcomes "a strong and prosperous ... member of the community of nations." He also has said that world power status brings with it the responsibility of engagement in international affairs, "a burden of leadership that both our countries now carry." Such talk raises the hackles of conservatives at home who see global power as a zero-sum game and believe Obama is ceding too much to China.

The head of the world's atomic energy watchdog said Iran and world powers have until Friday to approve a proposed deal to transfer most of Iran's nuclear material abroad to be reformatted for medical purposes. International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei disclosed no details about the draft deal, hammered out over 2 1/2 days of talks between Iranian, American, French and Russian diplomats in Vienna. But he said that it reflected a "balanced approach" that would help Iran fuel a medical research reactor for diagnosing and treating cancer while building confidence to resolve long-standing suspicions about the nature of Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Sunday that the severe sanctions the West is threatening against Iran could force a change in the Islamic Republic's nuclear ambitions, especially since the country is already under severe economic distress. Speaking as officials from six world powers prepare to meet with Iranian negotiators this week to discuss Tehran's nuclear program, Gates noted that the unemployment rate for Iran's young people is 40%, and asserted that past economic sanctions "are having an impact."