U.S. demurs as Israel pushes "crippling" Iran sanctions

So Obama finally stood up to Washington's most powerful lobby? Its about time. Its quite embarrassing how that tail wags the big dog.

Major U.S. news organizations, including the New York Times and the Washington Post, are engaged in a replay of the kind of slanted coverage that paved the way to war in Iraq, only this time regarding Iran.

That's a long article, but its very germane to what's going on right now with Iran. According to the article US intelligence has no evidence Iran is trying to build a bomb and may well have a duly elected president. Much food for thought.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Israel lobbied the United States on Thursday to promote "crippling" sanctions against Iran to curb its nuclear programme, but the Obama administration said it did not want to hurt the Iranian people.

[snip]

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday such sanctions would have to hit Iran's vital energy sector. Though it is the world's fifth-largest oil exporter, Iran imports 40 percent of its gasoline from foreign refineries.

Yet in separate comments on Wednesday, U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said: "It is not our intent to have crippling sanctions that have a significant impact on the Iranian people. Our actual intent is to find ways to pressure the government while protecting the people."

Another U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Washington worried too-sweeping sanctions might backfire by giving Iranian hardliners cover to crack down on dissidents, and by making economic conditions so hard ordinary Iranians turn on the United States rather than the Tehran government.

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