Reuters: U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Monday the United States was considering a range of sanctions against Iran, including on Tehran’s elite Quds force of the Revolutionary Guard Corps. NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Monday the United States was considering a range of sanctions against Iran, including on Tehran’s elite Quds force of the Revolutionary Guard Corps.
“We can designate many more (Iranian) entities,” Rice said in an interview with Reuters. “There have been some Quds force individuals and entities already designated and we will look at the prospect of doing it to the organization as a whole.”
The United States accuses the Quds force of inciting violence in Iraq and of training and equipping of insurgents who have attacked U.S. troops. Iran denies interfering in Iraq.
“Remember that the problem with the Quds force is that it has a network of activities in support of terrorism but it also, we believe, has a network of activities in support of proliferation,” Rice said.
Rice reiterated that all options — which includes a military one — remained on the table against Iran, but she made clear the United States was determined to follow a diplomatic track on Iran for now.
However, she said there needed to be more urgency in international efforts to get Iran to abandon its sensitive nuclear work which the West believes is aimed at building a bomb and Tehran says is for civilian power generation.
“It is extremely important that the diplomatic track shows some life,” she said.
The United States is pushing for a third U.N. Security Council sanctions resolution against Iran but faces opposition from China and Russia, among others, who would like to give Tehran more time.
