House to vote on tougher sanctions against Iran for nuclear program
Tom Ramstack – AHN News Legal Correspondent
Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – The House of Representatives plans to vote on two bills as soon as Tuesday to increase economic sanctions against Iran for what U.S. lawmakers say is Iran’s program to develop nuclear weapons.
The bills would freeze U.S. assets of countries or companies that invest in Iran’s oil industry, provide it with gasoline or help it to develop weapons.
The bills also would ban countries or companies that violate the embargo from participating in U.S. contracts and prevent them from getting American bank loans.
Their top officials would be prohibited from traveling to the United States.
The new legislative proposals coincide with warnings from the Defense Department that Iran is very close to completing its first nuclear bombs and missiles.
In addition, a recent International Atomic Energy Agency report said Iran is suspected of secretly working on a project “specific to nuclear weapons.”
The Iranian government denies it is developing nuclear weapons. Its nuclear program is only for power generation and medicinal functions, such as cancer treatment, according to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
President Barack Obama has increased economic sanctions against Iran but opposed efforts to isolate its central bank from the international financial system.
A provision in the new bills would require a report on whether Iran’s central bank supported terrorist activities. Any finding showing the bank financed terrorism would kick in sanctions, such as blocking any of its U.S. investments.
The U.S. government has accused the Iranian government of supporting a recent assassination plot against the Saudi ambassador to the United States and the attack on the British Embassy in Tehran.
One provision in the bills would require Obama to certify to Congress that the Russian government was not helping Iran, North Korea or Syria to develop missiles or weapons of mass destruction. Otherwise, the U.S. government would cut off payments that support the International Space Station.
The first of the two bills is called the Iran Threat Reduction Act, H.R. 1905.
The second bill is H.R. 2105, the Iran, North Korea, and Syria Nonproliferation Reform and Modernization Act.
They would replace the previous Iran embargo legislation approved by Congress last year. The new bills contain language to close loopholes that allowed Iranians to avoid financial and energy sanctions.
The first of the new bills had 368 congressional sponsors, which allowed it to easily surpass the two-thirds majority required for international sanctions legislation.
The Senate’s versions of bills to toughen sanctions against Iran also have strong support.
U.S.-Iranian relations have become further strained in recent days by Iran’s capture of a high-tech stealth CIA surveillance drone flying over Iran.
Nevertheless, the Obama administration is warning against getting too tough with the Iranians.
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner recently told senators in a letter that tougher sanctions against Iran’s energy and financial sectors could interfere with international efforts to stop its nuclear program.
He also said the sanctions could backfire by driving up gasoline prices, thereby enabling Iran to reap more income from oil sales outside the United States.
“Iran’s greatest economic resource is its oil exports,” Geithner wrote. “Sales of crude oil line the regime’s pockets, sustain its human rights abuses and feed its nuclear ambitions like no other sector of the Iranian economy.”
The Obama administration wants language in the new sanctions bills softened and the penalties delayed for six months.
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