CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS – FOREIGN POLICY
May 18, 2011 – 8:55 p.m.
Senators Ready Sanctions Bill Against Iran as Obama Gets Tough on Syria
By Emily Cadei, CQ Staff
A pair of senators are preparing to introduce an Iran sanctions bill similar to one House members offered late last week, a senator and other sources confirmed Wednesday.
Sen.
According to Kirk, the Kyl-Lieberman bill will incorporate another sanctions bill (
There are also ongoing discussions about including language from yet another Kirk-Gillibrand measure (
The House bill incorporated language from both measures.
Mark Dubowitz, the executive director at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a think tank that supports aggressive sanctions to curb Tehran’s nuclear weapons program, confirmed that the senators are “very far along in the drafting process” for the bill.
Dubowitz predicted that the Senate bill, like the House version, would also work in elements from a bill introduced last session by Casey and
The Senate bill is likely to “be consistent” with the House measure, Dubowitz said, “but they’re going to provide additional measures.”
‘Closing Loopholes’
The bill offered by Ros-Lehtinen and Berman, Dubowitz said, is “primarily about closing loopholes” and “more closely tying the hands of the administration” when it comes to its use of waivers and exemptions on existing sanctions.
Critics of the Obama administration’s approach to Iran say it has not followed through and penalized companies that have violated the sanctions law, which was first enacted in 1996 (PL 104-172) and overhauled by Congress last June (PL 111-195). Those critics have singled out Chinese companies as particularly blatant violators.
Dubowitz said the major advance in the new House measure is that it would be the first time Congress “has targeted Iran’s crude oil fields.”
The legislation passed in 2010 focused mainly on companies that sell refined petroleum to Iran.
Senators Ready Sanctions Bill Against Iran as Obama Gets Tough on Syria
The Senate bill may also target additional elements of Iranian commerce, including the country’s purchase of products and technologies from abroad and its sale of sovereign debt, which Tehran has been using to try to circumvent existing sanctions and raise capital for its energy sector.
Kirk said he plans to highlight Iran’s ability to dodge existing sanctions in remarks he is scheduled to deliver May 23 at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s annual conference in Washington.
“There’s a bigger story which I’m going to lay out,” Kirk said, which is “that sanctions are breaking down pretty fast.”
Kirk, a staunch defender of Israel, is one of a long list of lawmakers of both parties lined up to speak at the AIPAC event, the largest pro-Israel gathering in the United States each year.
Both President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are slated to address the conference as well.
In addition to the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran, other hot topics of discussion will be the Middle East peace process and the controversial reconciliation of Palestinian political factions Fatah and Hamas, as well as the impact of the democratic uprisings sweeping the Middle East from Yemen to Syria.
Sanctioning Syria
Obama toughened his stance on Syria Wednesday, announcing a new round of sanctions on leading Syrian officials, including President Bashar al-Assad, who has overseen a brutal crackdown on protesters.
The move was warmly received by a number of lawmakers, including Lieberman and Republican Sens.
The four senators said the move “should send an unmistakable message that the United States stands in solidarity with the brave protesters in Syria and that the Assad regime has lost legitimacy in our eyes.” They also urged Obama “to talk in detail about the situation in Syria” in the sweeping speech he is giving Thursday on U.S. relations to the Arab world, “and make clear that it is time for Assad to go.”
Rep.
“Eventually, I would like the U.S. to pursue sanctions in the United Nations Security Council similar to what was imposed upon Iran,” he said in a written statement.