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Article IndexMaloney said, "We have not heard the Iranian opposition call for sanctions, as we did in South Africa" - where the anti-Apartheid opposition succeeded in putting pressure on authorities by rallying international support.
However, Karim Sadjadpour, an expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, disagreed.
"I think many of the opposition and the population are starting to come around... They're starting to see value in (sanctions)," he said.
On Tuesday, the Senate approved a measure introduced by Iran hawks Sens. Joe Lieberman and John McCain, among others, calling on Obama to impose sanctions if Iran did not come to the table by the Group of 20 summit or halt enrichment of uranium within two months of the meeting.
However, Maloney and Milani disputed that the gas sanctions would be effective against the ruling regime in Iran.
"It's the kids in the street - the ones driving the taxicabs - that will suffer," Maloney said, noting that the regime will likely continue to use all the gas it needs and merely cut off supplies to the general populace.
All of the discussion on ending the Iranian nuclear program, however, may be moot according to a report that surfaced this week in the Israeli daily Ha'aretz.
The report said that U.S. had sent a secret letter to the 10 countries that produce yellowcake uranium - the raw material for enrichment - asking them to closely monitor their supplies and to keep them out of Iranian hands.
The letter was reportedly inspired by a U.S. estimate that Iran's supply of yellowcake is running low.
"Calculations based on Iran's rate of uranium conversion thus far suggest that Iran will run out of yellowcake in 2010," the document was quoted as saying.
The letter makes a point similar to one made earlier this year in a report in the Times of London, though neither was separately corroborated by official confirmation.
