[…] Brown said he will meet with European leaders to build on three rounds of U.N. Security Council restrictions against doing business with Iran, including possible new measures preventing investments in Iranian liquefied natural gas.

“Iran continues to defy the will of the international community, and we are agreed on the need to strengthen the sanctions regime and ensure these sanctions are effectively implemented,” Brown said.

[…] On March 3, 2008, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution (UNSCR) 1803, with 14 votes in favor and none against (one country, Indonesia, abstained). This is the fifth time the Security Council has acted on the Iran nuclear issue. It is the fourth time the Council has acted under Chapter VII of the UN Charter to impose legally binding sanctions on Iran for the proliferation risks presented by its nuclear program and its failure to suspend its proliferation sensitive nuclear activities.

[…] Some 2 million Iranian Americans -- and other immigrants from neighboring countries that were once part of the Persian Empire -- are celebrating Nowrouz, the Persian New Year, on March 20 with rituals that go back thousands of years. The rituals find their symbolic roots in Zoroastrianism and its dualistic struggle between the forces of good and evil, but with the advent of Islam 14 centuries ago, many of the traditions were modified.

[…] Iran has once again failed to meet international standards on the conduct of democratic elections. The Iranian regime again used ideological grounds to disqualify candidates for parliament, imposed severe restrictions on the ability of journalists and media outlets to cover the elections, limited the ability of candidates to campaign, and refused to allow independent election monitors access to polling stations on election day.

[…] And still has not implemented the Additional Protocol. Once again, Iran has not made the choice the world had hoped for; once again, the Security Council has no choice but to act. At stake is the security of a vital region of the world and the credibility of the Security Council and the International Atomic Energy Agency as they seek to hold Iran to its nuclear nonproliferation commitments.

[…] The Security Council approved sanctions against Iran March 3 for refusing to suspend uranium enrichment and for not answering questions about its nuclear program for the International Atomic Energy Agency.

[…] The assistant secretary said that the Financial Action Task Force, an intergovernmental body formed in 1989 to combat money laundering and terrorist financing, has issued public statements confirming the "extraordinary systemic risks" that Iran poses to the international financial system. The task force provided guidance to help countries implement the financial aspects of the U.N. resolutions against Iran.

[…] Saying the United States “has no permanent enemies,” Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice reached out to Iran, urging the country’s officials to cease their support for violent groups and the pursuit of technologies that could lead to possession of a nuclear weapon. In return, she said, both countries could work together for normalized relations and growing bilateral cooperation.

[…] It demonstrates yet again that there is international solidarity behind the proposition that Iran cannot be allowed to get a nuclear weapon, that it cannot be allowed to have the technologies that can lead to the development of a nuclear weapon. And I think it’s extremely important that we refocus on the international consensus. And so the European-3, Germany, France, Great Britain and Russia, China, and the United States agreed on this resolution.

[…] In the report, IAEA Director-General Mohammed ElBaradei welcomed new background on Tehran’s decision in the mid-1980s "to acquire nuclear enrichment technologies on the black market," as well as an "updated chronology," shedding further light on Iran’s covert nuclear efforts in the 1990s. But, ElBaradei also concluded that Iran is continuing its nuclear activities and warned that the IAEA’s knowledge about Iran’s current nuclear program is "diminishing" due to Tehran’s decreased cooperation since 2006.

[…] "I firmly believe we can solve this problem diplomatically and will continue to work to do so," Bush told Germany's RTL and N-TV November 6.
"That's going to be an important topic with the chancellor." France and Germany are active diplomatic participants in the "P5 +1," which also includes China, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States.
The group is working together to convince Tehran to suspend its nuclear program and return to the negotiating table.