U.S. Renews Efforts To Punish Iran

The United States began a fresh campaign Monday to encourage European allies to adopt sanctions against Iran as a means of changing Iran’s behavior.

A U.S. mission headed by Peter Tarnoff, who stepped down Friday as the State Department’s third-ranking official, opened talks Monday in the Netherlands and also has discussions planned in Germany, France and Britain.

The administration senses that European support for maintaining ties with Iran has eroded after a Berlin court earlier this month concluded that Iran’s leaders had ordered the assassinations of four exiled Iranian dissidents in Berlin in 1992.

State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns said the Tarnoff delegation is exploring with the allies practical steps that the international community can take to change Iran’s “objectionable behavior.”