Word: ratchets
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...ease with which the Iranian regime has shrugged off those sanctions bodes ill for future success, at least so long as hard-liner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is President. If anything, Iran seemed to ratchet up its defiance a month ago, when Ali Larijani, a diplomat whom European negotiators viewed as a relative moderate, was replaced as chief nuclear negotiator by a close political ally of Ahmadinejad. Sources in Tehran say that switch could not have been made without the approval of Supreme Leader Ayatullah Ali Khamenei - a discouraging fact for those in the West who had hoped Khamenei might be tiring...
...about the "catastrophic" consequences of a military strike on Iran. Bush, for his part, will urge the European leader to pursue tougher economic sanctions against Tehran, regardless of whether the U.N. Security Council follows suit. Germany has significant trade ties with Iran and has until now resisted pressure to ratchet up sanctions outside of the U.N. framework...
...Arab countries, wary of Iran's ambitions but even more alarmed by the consequences of any U.S. attack on the Islamic Republic. The governments of Iraq and Afghanistan have warm, cooperative ties with Tehran, while Russia continues to work on Iran?s nuclear program and resists Western efforts to ratchet up U.N. pressure...
Finding the right balance isn't easy. It took Kelly Schandel, an interior designer and lifestyle consultant in Santa Monica, Calif., who used to work in publicity for Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger, two years after launching her own business before she could ratchet back on her 70-hour workweek. "It consumed my life. Even if I wasn't in the office or meeting clients, I was at the newsstand reading magazines. It wasn't very financially rewarding, but it's turned the corner," says Schandel, 42, who says she now grosses about $15,000 per month and leaves...
...Washington may also be moving to ratchet up covert pressure on Tehran. ABC News reported this week that President Bush has given the CIA a green light to conduct non-lethal covert operations against Iran using propaganda, disinformation and the squeezing of Iran's international banking transactions...