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By Adam Entous

Source: The Wall Street Journal

September 5, 2010

WASHINGTON—Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Sunday said the international community should be prepared to confront Iran with tougher sanctions, and possibly military action, in an effort to prevent Tehran from obtaining nuclear weapons,

U.S. officials have recently argued that newly imposed international sanctions are having a larger-than-expected impact on Iran’s economy and appeared to be slowing the pace of its nuclear development. Tehran says its program is intended for peaceful power generation.

Mr. Blair, speaking on ABC News’s “This Week,” appeared not to rule out the possibility that a nuclear-armed Iran could be contained, but said it wasn’t worth the risk. “I had someone say to me….’Come on, look, supposing Iran gets the nuclear weapon, it’s not the end of the world. I mean, why should they want to use it? Why would they want to cause all that destruction?’ ” Mr. Blair said. “It’s a perfectly sensible argument you hear. And who knows, they may be right. All I know is, if I was a decision maker, I wouldn’t take the risk.”

He said the international community should opt for stronger action against Iran, rather than accede to it getting a bomb. “I would tell them they can’t have it, and if necessary, they will be confronted with stronger sanctions and diplomacy.”

Asked about the idea of taking military action against Iran, he said that option shouldn’t be taken off the table. “I don’t want to see it, but I’m saying I think you cannot exclude it because the primary—the primary objective—has got to be to prevent them from getting a nuclear weapon,” Mr. Blair said.

President Barack Obama hasn’t ruled out future military action against Iran, and the Pentagon has been updating its options for potential strikes. But senior U.S. military officials have at the same time cautioned that any strikes against Iran, by either the U.S. or Israel, could have unintended consequences that may be as serious as letting Iran go nuclear.

In addition to U.N. sanctions, the European Union approved expansive new penalties in July that forbid any new European investment in Iran’s oil-and-gas sector. Mr. Obama, meanwhile, signed into law new congressional sanctions that target any international firms doing business with blacklisted Iranian banks and Tehran’s elite military unit, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Israel, which sees a nuclear-armed Iran as the biggest threat to its existence, has welcomed the new sanctions. But Israeli officials say they have seen no indications so far that the country’s hardline leaders are prepared to abandon their pursuit of nuclear weapons.