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Iran sanctions deadline passes

How long can the US and its allies wait before taking action to stop Iran's nuclear program?

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The plan was to use direct engagement as the carrot and punishing economic sanctions as the stick, but neither carrot nor stick seems sufficient to persuade Iran’s tottering regime to curb its nuclear ambitions.

The Obama administration’s end-of-the-year deadline for an agreement with Tehran has quietly slipped by and the new deadline now appears to be May, ahead of the review conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Whatever hopes Washington and its European allies may have had for presenting Iran with a credible threat of sanctions evaporated last week when China sent the diplomatic equivalent of third-string benchwarmer to a varsity level meeting of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany.

The meeting was called to discuss a new round of sanctions, but all that was agreed was to try again in a teleconference at a later date.

Although the Chinese foot-dragging is frustrating to the United States, it may be a benefit in disguise.

Iran’s deeply unpopular government, an uneasy marriage of convenience between conservative mullahs and the hardline Revolutionary Guard Corps, clings to power by resorting to increasingly repressive measures against a reform movement that is growing in strength.

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