News and views on U.S.-Iran relations for January 11:

• Council on Foreign Relations: George W. Bush administration Deputy National Security Advisor Elliott Abrams blogs that the pronouncement by retiring Mossad head, Meir Dagan, that Iran will not have a nuclear weapon until 2015 should give new momentum to sanctions. Abrams, who is a curently a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, writes that “increasing sanctions may damage the Iranian economy in ways that create additional political tension.” He says that Republican leadership in the House “should be asking right now what more the United States and our allies can be doing to stop the Iranian nuclear weapons program, make our sanctions more effective, and support democratic dissidents in Iran.”