US now wants oil-rich Iran to dismantle its sensitive nuclear program activities altogether like what Libya did in 2003.

May 19, 2010 (Hamsayeh.Net) - United States is now ready to enact sanctions on Iran targeting military, financial and shipping activities, US ambassador to the UN Susan Rice said on Tuesday. She said the new sanctions would give greater teeth to existing sanction on Iran.

Ignoring a recent agreement between Iran and foreign ministers of Turkey and Brazil on nuclear fuel swap, United States says it still wants to pursue  tough stance against Iran so the Middle Eastern country will be forced to abandon enrichment activities altogether.

‘The draft resolution restates the [UN Security] Council's demand that Iran suspend its enrichment activities and other proliferation sensitive nuclear activities,’ Susan Rice stated on Tuesday.

New sanctions are supposed to target military, financial and shipping activities of Iran. The United States and NATO allies would be inspecting cargo vessels carrying goods to Iran on high seas if all goes well according to plan. Such action would mean an act of war and Iran could retaliate by blocking world’s energy lifeline i.e. the Straight of Hormuz. Tehran could also withdraw from the NPT by rightly claiming that the United States and its allies have achieved to make this important international treaty completely irrelevant.

According to Rice, new sanctions would ban all activities related to Iran's ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons. It would impose a comprehensive cargo inspections framework to deter or detect and stop Iran's smuggling and acquisition of ballistic materials or sensitive nuclear items. 

However United States ability to exert pressure on Iran unilaterally is questionable. With over 3000 km long shoreline along the Persian Gulf and Oman Sea, a formidable military supported with an impressive national vigor it would be impossible for the US to impose sanctions as simply as it believes it could short of an all-out war that has the potential to turn into a full-fledged third world war.

Russia and China have already denounced sanctions on Iran. Earlier both countries hailed the new nuclear swap agreement and said they would support the move.