Some capitol hill republicans mocked

June 10th, 2010|Jeniffer David
Senate

N. resolution as weak, and said it was more important than ever that Congress pass its own set of crippling sanctions on Iran.

House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Howard Berman said the United States was looking to major allies in Europe and elsewhere to impose tougher measures to pressure Iran over its nuclear work. Iran denies Western allegations it is seeking nuclear weapons, insisting its uranium enrichment program is for peaceful purposes such as electricity generation.

The U.S. Congress will do its part by passing sanctions legislation later this month, Berman said in a statement.

He did not say what further U.S. sanctions might include. Both the House and Senate have passed legislation that would largely keep companies worldwide that supply gasoline to Iran from doing business with the United States.

The resolution passed by the 15-nation Security Council followed five months of negotiations among the United States, Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia. With 12 votes in favor, it received the least support of the four Iran sanctions resolutions adopted since 2006.

The four Western powers had wanted much tougher measuressome targeting Irans energy sector — but Beijing and Moscow succeeded in diluting the steps outlined in the 10-page resolution.

EU diplomats said major European states plan to use the U.N. move to impose their own unilateral sanctions on Iran and could agree on them very soon.

SEEKING TO COMBINE HOUSE, SENATE BILLS

Berman is one of the leaders of a House and Senate negotiating group that has been working to combine the congressional bills into one. Late last month, the group agreed to wait until the United Nations acted before finishing the U.S. legislation.

Once the negotiators agree, both the House and Senate will have to pass the measure before sending it to President Barack Obama, a Democrat, to sign into law. It was unclear what impact the U.N. action would have on the U.S. legislation.

Berman, whose Democratic Party has the majority in Congress, said in December that he was open to allowing exemptions for companies from countries that cooperate with multilateral sanctions on Iran.

Richard Lugar, a Republican and one of the Senates most respected voices on foreign policy, said he thought lawmakers should wait and see what the Europeans did before deciding on further U.S. sanctions. European Union foreign ministers will discuss extra steps they could take at a meeting next week.

With the Europeans aboard and the U.N. vote … it seems to me that the Obama administration has a good argument that we ought to proceed with our allies … as opposed to unilateralism, Lugar told Reuters.

But several other Republicans warned against softening Congress approach. The Senates No. 2 Republican, Jon Kyl, said Congress should approve Iran sanctions legislation without watering it down or plugging it full of loopholes.

Kyl also criticized the new U.N. resolution for excluding Russias cooperation with Iran on a power plant at Bushehr and Russias sale of an S-300 missile system to Tehran.

Republican Senator John McCain said the U.N. resolution was a lowest common denominator product. In the House, Republican Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen said the U.N. action had no effective means of enforcement.

The Security Council resolution blacklists Iranian military, industrial and shipping firms. The sanctions also provide for inspections of suspect cargoes to and from Iran and tighten an existing arms embargo.

Editing by Peter Cooney and Eric Walsh source