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Last Updated: Sep 8, 2008 - 8:46:22 AM |
The best way to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear capabilities is to
impose a cost so high that it threatens the Iranian regime's survival
unless that regime changes course. U.S. sanctions have hindered Iran's
ability to attract capital, materials, and technical support, and have
created extensive and growing financial difficulties for the regime.
Yet although Congress has repeatedly passed sanctions legislation which
has been signed into law, its implementation has been watered down or
ignored by successive administrations. The latest U.S. response has
been to join the European Union's efforts to bribe the mullahs into
suspending uranium enrichment, while failing to apply U.S. sanctions
aimed at denying the Iranian regime the political legitimacy and
economic resources that it needs to continue engaging in its
destructive policies. We must impose immediate, comprehensive, tough
economic sanctions, along with every other source of pressure that we
can muster, in coordination with as many countries as we can persuade
to do so. We should engage officials in friendly nations, international
organizations, and financial institutions, and work to persuade them to
cooperate with the United States in targeting the Iranian regime. The
United States should make a moral statement that we will not deal with
pariah states and will not help such states to fortify themselves and
thereby endanger our own national interests and the interests of our
allies, such as Israel. The Iranian regime's expanding political and
military involvement across the Middle East and South Asia is a force
to be reckoned with. We need to wake up and understand the implications
of this matter, not just for Israel but for the United States as well.
History has taught us that failing to act when threatened by a deadly
foe like Iran usually ends in an avoidable tragedy. We ignore Iran's
growing hegemony at our own peril.
In analyzing and addressing the threat posed by Iran, it is vital to
act on the basis of facts, not myths.
Many tend to look upon the Middle East conflict as an
Israeli-Palestinian dispute, even though the evidence indicates that
the conflict is largely a symptom of Iran's race for global supremacy.
Many also believe that the principle of "land for peace" has been
successful, no matter what the realities on the ground tell us. As a
result, they think that if Israel can continue to be pushed to give up
land, then all will be well. In reality, a mishandled
Israeli-Palestinian channel could encourage and facilitate the
expansionist aims of Iran and its proxies.
Yet another myth under which many operate is that even though the
United Nations has been proven time and time again to be a failure at
its mission, we should still unquestioningly rely on the UN to solve
growing threats to our security, including the Iranian nuclear crisis.
But in reality, the best way to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear
capabilities is to impose strong sanctions on the regime and to do so
now.
Congress Enacts Sanctions on Iran's Energy Infrastructure
The United States Congress has taken strong, pro-active steps regarding
sanctions because many of us in the House and Senate recognize the
threat posed by the Iranian regime, and we understand the consequences
of doing little or nothing to stop it.
Congress passed the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act in 1996, imposing
sanctions on foreign companies investing in Iran's energy
infrastructure, in an effort to undermine the strategic threat posed by
the regime. That legislation, which Congress has since strengthened and
re-titled as the Iran Sanctions Act, aims to cut off foreign investment
in Iran's petroleum sector, denying the regime the economic lifeline
that it needs to pursue its nuclear ambitions and sponsor violent
Islamist groups.
Congress has also placed sanctions on the regime in Tehran because of
Iran's designation as a state sponsor of terrorism. We have passed
prohibitions on the export of items to Iran that have dual civilian and
military use. And we have required the Executive Branch to implement
the Atomic Energy Act and thereby forbid the export of nuclear
materials or sensitive nuclear technology to any country that is a
state sponsor of terrorism.
The combined impact of all of this sanctions legislation has hindered
Iran's ability to attract capital, materials, and technical support,
and has created extensive and growing financial difficulties for the
regime. Congress's response to the Iranian threat has spanned the
political spectrum and grown over the years, as more and more
legislators have recognized the severe and escalating nature of the
Iranian threat.
Congress also knows that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA),
the UN's nuclear watchdog, has not done its job. The IAEA is giving
legitimacy to the Iranian regime's false claims that they are using
their nuclear program for solely peaceful purposes. While I still
believe the IAEA, in spite of all its failures, is a useful
organization, it doesn't presently have the manpower - or the willpower
- to conduct full, unannounced inspections of Iran's nuclear
facilities. The IAEA is dealing with an extraordinarily skillful and
deceptive regime and has too much faith in them.
Therefore, despite the Administration's efforts to counter Iran's
strategy in the region, the scope of Tehran's plans and actions
continues to grow. I believe that we have failed to adequately
recognize or address the regime's aim to use its violent Islamist
proxies to threaten and attack the U.S., Israel and others - not only
throughout the region but also in Latin America, our own backyard. The
1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires,
Argentina, is just one of many examples of Iran's use of proxy warfare
to advance the regime's hegemony and undermine the U.S. and our allies.
The failure of the U.S. to properly recognize and confront the Iranian
threat spans several administrations. We know all too well what the
U.S. response was when militants seized the U.S. embassy in Tehran in
1979, holding 52 Americans hostage for over a year, and when they
attacked the marine barracks in Lebanon in 1983, killing 241 American
servicemen.
There have been so many legislative measures, but so little real action
on the part of the U.S. in response to the Iranian regime's dangerous
deeds. The door has remained open for foreign investment in Iran - no
matter what destabilizing actions Iran has taken - and the U.S. has
done little, if anything, to stop such investment. The U.S. was by no
means alone in this failure; many other countries such as Russia and
China joined in, and blocked or severely weakened UN Security Council
sanctions resolutions that could have had a real impact.
Yet all of the countries making economic agreements with Iran should
know they won't be worth the paper on which they're printed. The
Iranian regime is only after its own political, military, and
ideological domination, will exploit supposed allies for its own ends,
and will never give a second thought to ripping up any agreements that
are no longer in the mullahs' interests.
Attempting to Bribe the Mullahs
Given that the Iranian threat continues to grow, while our efforts to
address it have not been sufficient, what do we do now? The American
response has been to join the European Union in its efforts to bribe
the mullahs into suspending uranium enrichment, while failing to
implement U.S. sanctions aimed at denying the Iranian regime the
political legitimacy and economic resources that it needs to continue
to engage in its destructive policies.
We have already made many concessions to Iran, and the State Department
appears ever ready to seek additional waivers on a wide range of
legislative restrictions that Congress has passed regarding Iran. For
more than ten years, by the time Congress gets to the point of passing
legislation, it is substantially watered down. It always has to include
a presidential waiver, allowing the president to waive implementation
for national security reasons that are never spelled out. That is why
the legislation that we pass in one form or another never has the teeth
that we want it to have, and even then it is hardly put into full
force. So we are left with half-baked legislation, but the little bit
that has been put into effect has had great effect.
Great damage has been done to the credibility of our policies toward
Iran because we have passed legislation but did not put it into
practice. It is long past time for a better approach, one based on the
true nature of the Iranian regime and the threat it poses to all of us.
Needed: Immediate, Comprehensive, Tough Economic Sanctions
My perspective, and one shared by many of my colleagues in Congress, is
to impose a cost so high that it threatens the Iranian regime's
survival unless it changes course. This approach will require applying
immediate, comprehensive, tough economic sanctions, along with every
other source of pressure that we can muster, in coordination with as
many countries as we can persuade to do so.
Congress can demonstrate our commitment to increased pressure on Iran
by passing tougher measures targeting the regime. One piece of new
legislation is the Iran Counter-Proliferation Act, which passed the
House last year by a vote of 397 to 16, but still has not received
consideration by the Senate. Another is the Security through
Termination of Proliferation Act, which I introduced this past June. It
seeks to prevent countries, companies, and other entities from
transshipping illegal goods to Iran through poorly-monitored ports,
such as Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. It further specifies that
U.S. sanctions will remain in effect until the president certifies that
Iran or Syria have verifiably dismantled their nuclear, biological,
chemical, and missile programs.
In addition to passing stepped-up sanctions bills, Members of Congress
should engage officials in friendly nations, international
organizations, and financial institutions, and work to encourage them
to cooperate with the U.S. in targeting the Iranian regime. We can also
impose pressure through such measures as publicly investigating
financial institutions operating in the United States that are reported
to be in violation of U.S. laws or UN Security Council regulations
regarding Iran. Members can also help ensure that those institutions
act to curtail their dealings with the Iranian regime, including
refusing to issue new letters of credit to Iranian businesses. And we
should reward these initiatives.
What else can Congress do? We can support the growing effort to
persuade pension funds and other investment vehicles to divest from
companies that invest in Iran. Florida, my home state, was the first
state to divest its pension funds, and now more states are doing so. We
want to persuade companies operating in Iran to rethink the wisdom of
doing business with one of our nation's most dangerous enemies.
Sanctions are the most effective source of pressure that we have, but
we have not used them to their full potential. We in Congress are going
to continue to press the State Department to fully implement these
sanctions. While Secretary of State Rice has repeatedly stated that
she's not hesitant to sanction, the reality is that the United States
has not once sanctioned even one foreign company in violation of the
Iran Sanctions Act, although such firms have invested more than $20
billion in Iran's energy sector over the past decade.
Indeed, more companies and individuals have been sanctioned for making
and selling pirated products such as CDs, DVDs, and television sets
than have been sanctioned for investing in Iran's energy sector, or
worse, for providing technology and other material to support Iran's
weapons of mass destruction or missile capabilities. To the contrary,
we are rewarding countries such as Russia, which directly contributes
to Iran's missile program, with nuclear cooperation agreements with the
U.S.
If sanctions are to be used effectively, they should be applied across
the board in order to put maximum pressure on a regime that, to quote
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, is hell-bent on trying to develop
nuclear capabilities. If leading officials are willing to state, over
and over again, that the Iranian regime must not be allowed to develop
nuclear capabilities, then the Administration must finally follow
through with measures that can actually stop the regime in its tracks.
Implementation Is the Key
The real problem is putting existing sanctions laws into effect. We
have seen administration after administration implement parts of
existing law but not follow through with the rest. The few provisions
that the Executive Branch did apply have caused real economic harm to
the Iranian regime, particularly in the petroleum sector. Financing in
general has become more difficult for the Iranian regime because of
these sanctions. The cost of money has gone up significantly as Iran's
credit rating has fallen. Obtaining letters of credit and other
financial instruments that Iran needs for international trade has
become more problematic. As a result of these efforts, investors have
pulled out of a number of oil and gas deals. So the sanctions are
absolutely having an effect at present, but much, much more can be
done. I am optimistic that if we can remain vigilant, we will prevail
and protect the security of America and her allies - no matter who is
the president, and no matter which party controls the Congress.
If the U.S. is the only one implementing economic sanctions on Iran,
without the support of other countries and financial institutions and
the mechanism that it takes to put sanctions in place, our efforts will
not be as effective as they should be. So acting alone is not as good
as acting internationally. But it is important for the United States to
make a moral statement that we will not deal with pariah states and
will not help such states to fortify themselves and thereby endanger
our own national interests and the interests of our allies, such as
Israel.
History has taught us that failing to act, and relying on hope, when
threatened by a deadly foe like Iran, usually ends in an avoidable
tragedy. Iran's political and military involvement across the Middle
East and South Asia is a force to be reckoned with and we need to wake
up and understand the implications of that, not just for Israel but for
the United States as well. We ignore Iran's growing hegemony at our own
peril.
Source:Ocnus.net 2008
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