Word: tougher
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Beijing has been humiliated by Pyongyang's latest provocations, which is why there may be hope that the U.N. Security Council will be able to up the ante by imposing tougher economic sanctions on Kim's regime. In April, after the missile launch, Beijing did not stand in the way when three North Korean companies were moved from a U.S. sanctions list to a U.N. sanctions list - meaning that all nations are obliged to cut off business ties to those companies. The breadth of the sanctions is now likely to be much wider: not only must China not run interference...
...days since Iran's troubled election, hard-liners in Israel and neoconservatives in America have made no secret of their glee at still having Ahmadinejad as an antagonistic foil to help build support for taking a tougher line on Tehran's nuclear ambitions. But there is also widespread relief in the Administration, as well as among some moderates on Capitol Hill and in Europe, at the result. Despite all the attention paid to the office of the Iranian presidency, nuclear policy is set by the religious leaders of the country, and they have shown a determination to amass enriched uranium...
...contrast, Ahmadinejad's win may increase Washington's chances of getting tougher sanctions on Iran if they refuse to negotiate, the officials said. Ahmadinejad personifies Iran's unpredictable, dangerous side. He made even more hostile and threatening statements toward Israel and the U.S. during the campaign. And though they dare not say it publicly, Administration officials privately say that the messier and more contentious the postelection period, the more it sends the message to the outside world that even if some Iranians want moderation the hard-liners will not allow...
...that said, the U.S. faces an uphill battle to gain broad support for tougher sanctions, including those targeting Iran's ailing energy sector; Iran sits on the world's third largest oil reserves, but it loses as much as 500,000 barrels a year in production capacity and what it does produce it has little ability to refine, importing up to 50% of its gasoline. Russia has said it does not support sanctions beyond those targeting businesses with direct ties to the nuclear and missile programs in Iran...
...opposition could nonetheless complicate the push for overall reform. So as much as Obama is trying to stay with broad campaign themes emphasizing the larger need for health-care reform, he's also going to have to spell out more clearly where he stands on some of its tougher questions. In fact, that kind of reckoning may come as early as Monday, when he reaches the next stop on his health-care campaign trail - a speech at the AMA's 158th annual meeting in Chicago...