December 06-2013
. . . drafting bill
Congress appears eager to pass more sanctions on Iran, but will keep them from going into effect unless talks with Iran end in failure or Iran breaks the agreement signed last month. But President Obama still opposes even sanctions put on hold.
The White House announced Tuesday that it opposes any new sanctions, even ones just held in reserve, such as is being proposed.
The White House did not, however, threaten to veto any sanctions bill emerging from Congress.
White House press secretary Jay Carney announced Tuesday, “If we pass sanctions now—even with a deferred trigger which has been discussed—the Iranians and likely our international partners will see us as having negotiated in bad faithÖ. Passing any new sanctions right now would undermine a peaceful resolution to this issue.”
But neither Iran nor any member of the Big Six—apart from the United States—has spoken out against a new sanctions law that would not impose any new sanctions while the countries are still negotiating.
Iran has complained about the EU re-imposing sanctions on 16 Iranian firms that an EU court had said should come out from under sanctions. (See accompanying story.) But Iran did not say that invalidated last month’s agreement. And it has been silent about what the US Congress is doing.
The Washington Post reported that Sen. Robert Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was drafting a bill that would delay implementation for six months and would even include a presidential waiver provision. In other words, the sanctions could not go into effect unless the president approved of them.
Menendez said, “From my perspective, it strengthens the Administration’s hand” and positions the United States “for the possibility that [a permanent] agreement cannot ultimately be struck…. It would make clear to the Iranians, if they don’t strike a deal, this is what’s coming.”
It is reported that the key part of the bill would impose sanctions on banks in any country that hasn’t totally stopped buying Iranian oil by the end 2014. It would basically shut out banks in the offending country from doing business in the United States, a devastating punishment no country except perhaps North Korea would want to face.
Mark Dubovitz, a sanctions specialist with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, said such a sanctions-in-waiting law have real a benefit right away because many people are listening to Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu say almost daily that the sanctions are becoming unglued and everyone will soon be trading with Iran. Dubovitz said the delayed sanctions bill would “prevent the unraveling of the sanctions regime…. The sanctions were about fear and now the market psychology is changing from fear to greed. Greed overrides fear.”
