Reformist party warns Iranian government

TEHRAN - Iranian reformists challenged President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's hard-line nuclear policy yesterday as the United States defended its decision to impose tougher sanctions on Tehran over its disputed atomic work.

Washington announced sanctions Thursday against more than 20 Iranian companies, banks, and individuals and the Defense Ministry, hoping to increase pressure on Tehran to stop uranium enrichment and curb its "terrorist" activities.

At a meeting in Tehran, the reformist Islamic Iran Participation Front warned the country's rulers of an escalating crisis with the international community and called for a review of nuclear policy.

"The government should refrain from its adventurous policies," Mohsen Mirdamadi, the party's secretary-general, told an audience of 200 people.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, speaking on NBC's "Today" show, defended the new sanctions, saying: "The international community cannot just sit idly by until we face unpalatable choices. A nuclear weapon in the hands of the Iranian regime would be deeply destabilizing in the world's most volatile region."

Russian President Vladimir Putin had already criticized the move, saying it would force Tehran into a corner, and both Rice and the White House played down any disagreement with Moscow over Iran.

China expressed its opposition to the new US sanctions, saying they could complicate the nuclear dispute with Iran.

Liu Jianchao, Foreign Ministry spokesman, said on the ministry's website: "China has always been opposed to imposing sanctions too rashly in international relations."

In Brussels, the National Council of Resistance of Iran, an opposition group of Iranian émigrés, welcomed the US sanctions, saying they would hit the operations of Iran's Revolutionary Guard.

Britain and France have been pushing for tougher European Union sanctions against Iran over the nuclear program, but EU nations are divided on the issue.