A US-led coalition has just fired off a third volley in a 15-month diplomatic drive against Iran, but even Washington admits it has no silver bullet and it will unlikely be the last shot.
Nonetheless the latest volley appears targetted at elections in Iran next week.

With more international supporters than firepower, the Bush administration hopes gradually to squeeze Iran into halting its sensitive nuclear work by turning Iranians against their hardline president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

To keep Russia, China and others in the coalition, "the US realizes it has to turn up the heat in five-degree increments instead of 20-degree increments," said analyst Karim Sadjadpour.

A key test of whether President George W. Bush's step-by-step strategy is working will come when Iran holds parliamentary elections March 14 and voters may have a chance to elect more moderate candidates.

The polls come at a good time.

The UN Security Council resolution last week adopted a third resolution urging Iran to stop enriching uranium in return for economic benefits or face more sanctions -- albeit weaker than those Washington would have liked.

Having always denied US charges that the enrichment work is part of a program to build a nuclear bomb, Ahmadinejad scoffed at the new resolution and vowed to pursue work he insists is for a civilian energy program.

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