http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/07/world/middleeast/07sanctions.html?hp
U.S. Enriches Companies Defying Its Policy on Iran

Fernando Bizerra Jr./European Pressphoto Agency
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, center, in Brazil last fall. The nations agreed to share technical expertise on energy projects.

The federal government has awarded more than $107 billion in contract payments, grants and other benefits over the past decade to foreign and multinational American [...]

The Senate on Thursday approved legislation that would let President Barack Obama impose sanctions on Iran’s gasoline suppliers and penalize some of Tehran’s elites, a move aimed at pressuring Tehran to give up its nuclear program.

A bipartisan group of senators is pushing President Obama to move forward with new sanctions against Iran, now that his “end of 2009″ deadline for meaningful response from Tehran — which the administration insists was not a deadline — has long past.

The former president of a foundation that federal investigators allege is a front for the Iranian government pleaded guilty to obstructing a grand jury probe.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,654596,00.html

‘Embarrassing’ Incident in Gulf of Suez
German Ship Transporting Arms for Iran

ddp
The US military discovered eight containers, similar to these ones, containing ammunition apparently being shipped from Iran to Syria aboard a German-owned freighter.

US troops boarded a German-owned freighter in early October and found eight containers full of ammunition, allegedly headed to Syria from Iran. The [...]

The meeting this week was held at the Treasury Department’s Washington headquarters and initiated by Stuart Levey, the Obama administration’s point man on Iran sanctions. Daniel Glaser, a deputy assistant secretary of the Treasury, headed up the majority of the deliberations, according to participants. A Treasury Department official declined to comment.

Why Iran can’t cut off your oil.
BY EUGENE GHOLZ | SEPT. / OCT. 2009
Supertankers carry about 90 percent of Persian Gulf oil exports
through the Strait of Hormuz each day, satisfying some 20 percent of
worldwide demand. For maximum safety, the International Maritime
Organization suggests that the huge, difficult-to-maneuver ships
travel within a designated channel while in the strait, [...]

President Obama, joined by French President Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Brown, speak to the press on an Iranian nuclear activities during the G20 Conference in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. September 25, 2009. (public domain)

That is why I intend to take action on my bill - HR 2194, the Iran Refined Petroleum Sanctions Act – expeditiously and at the most opportune time to accomplish our shared goal, if Iran does not reverse course. Absent some compelling evidence as to why I should do otherwise, I will mark up my bill next month and begin the process of tightening the screws on Tehran.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,druck-643193,00.html
The EU and Germany are considering radically tightening sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program, SPIEGEL reports. Possible measures include forbidding gasoline exports to Iran.
Berlin and Brussels are increasingly prepared to impose massive embargoes on Iran unless Tehran signals soon that it’s ready to compromise in their nuclear dispute.

DPA
Defying the West: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

SPIEGEL [...]