could strike well before that. all right, jim miklaszewski at the pentagon monitoring the story for us. thanks very much. savannah, you and i were talking before the show. it shouldn t be a surprise they re rethinking iran. the president hinted sanctions aren t a magic wand. we heard dennis mcdown gnaw say that to us on this show last week. they clearly realize the sanction strategy isn t go going to work. the question is what is plan b. going forward with sanctions but already lowering expectations what they can accomplish. singh is definitely up on iran policy. it s patriots day so it s the ash heard round the world. that vol canic ash is now making its way to north america. nbc s chief science and health correspondent bob bazell is in iceland for us this morning. it s coming to north america. do we have to worry? is this an air quality issue? is this going to create havoc now on north american flights? chuck, you know, you don t have to worry one bit about
china has dispatched representatives to the u.n. in new york to hash this out. president obama expressed confidence that china will come on board, but cautioned that even tougher sanctions aimed at curtailing iran s nuclear appetite won t produce immediate results. sanctions aren t a magic wand. what sanctions do accomplish is hopefully to change the calculus of a country like iran so that they see that there are more costs and fewer benefits to pursuing a nuclear weapons program. reporter: now in describing the strategy going into this two-day summit, a senior administration official said that they use this gathering shamelessly to try to get some of these countries to show up with, quote, house gifts, in other words, come here with some kind of commitments. well, the u.s. did get commitments. they have the handshakes. but again, the big question is whether or not those handshakes and commitments will turn into real action starting tomorrow.
nuke materials. overshadowing the event was what was the international community do to deal with iran feared pursuit of nuclear weapons? the president conceded, the chinese now supportive of sanctions not committed to specific ones and said negotiations could prove difficult and said he will work as hard as he can to contain strong and meaningful sanks. but when he described the overall goal, he left out my deterrent or punishment of iran. sanctions aren t a magic wand. what they do accomplish is hopefully to change the call ku cue lus call cue louse so they see the cost is more than benefit of pursuing the nuclear weapons program. the president said is that the international community act in a bold and pragmatic way. the risk of a nuclear confrontation between nations
nuclear weapons program. they have rejected that so far. and that s why it s important, and i said from the start that we re going to move on a dual track. and part of that dual track is making sure that a sanctions regime is in place. last point i ll make about sanctions. sometimes i hear the argument that, well, sanctions aren t really going to necessarily work. sanctions aren t a magic wand. what sanctions do accomplish is hopefully to change the calculus of a country like iran, so that they see that there are more costs and fewer benefits to pursuing a nuclear weapons program. and in that process, what we hope is that if those costs get high enough and the benefits are low enough, that in time, they make the right decision, not just for this security and
shepard: you know, major, fox reported on iran last night and how china is now supporting sanctions but last night, at least, we didn t know what kind of sanctions. how about an update? we do not know what kind of sanctions will come, shepard. we don t know at all what china has agreed to other than the idea that sanctions should go forward. the president said in all likelihood the negotiations with the chinese will be very difficult. he also said, or didn t say, that the goal will be to deter or punish iran but something else, a little bit more nuances. let s take a listen. sanctions aren t a magic wand. what sanctions do accomplish is hopefully to change the calculus of a country like iran so that they see that there are more costs and fewer benefits to pursuing a nuclear weapons program. so, shepard, in the main sanctions sound not like a blunt instrument to punish or deter necessarily but something to encourage iran as the president has tried so far unsuccessfully