President
Barack Obama would veto
Iran sanctions legislation introduced in the Senate on 19 December, according
to White House spokesman Jay Carney,
who said the measure would increase chances for war.
Carney’s
comments underscored a rift between Obama and some lawmakers, including
Democrats, about whether sanctions legislation would prod Iran toward a nuclear
deal or derail the talks aimed at assuring the government in Tehran doesn’t
produce nuclear weapons. It also put the administration at odds with the pro-Israel lobbying group, the
American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which endorsed the bill.
Twenty-six
U.S. senators, half of them Democrats, introduced the bill to hit Iran with
further sanctions if it violates a six-month accord with the U.S. and other
nations or fails to reach a final agreement curtailing its nuclear program.
The
legislation also calls for the U.S. to support Israel if it “is compelled to
take military action in legitimate self-defense
against Iran’s nuclear weapon program.”
“Current
sanctions brought Iran to the negotiating table, and a credible threat of
future sanctions will require Iran to cooperate and act in good faith at the
negotiating table,” Menendez, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee, said in the statement.
Menendez’s
action was criticized by 10 senior Democratic senators, the heads of other
committees, who said in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, that new sanctions “would play into the hands of
those in Iran who are most eager to see the negotiations fail.”
The
Obama administration has pressed lawmakers not to risk the current negotiations
by acting on new sanctions before there is time to see if a deal can be reached
to assure that Iran doesn’t produce nuclear weapons.
One
provision of the Nov. 24 joint plan of action between world powers and Iran
says that “the U.S. administration, acting consistent with the respective roles
of the president and the Congress, will refrain from imposing new
nuclear-related sanctions” during the six-month period allocated to negotiate a
final deal.
Carney
said yesterday, “It is our view that it is very important to refrain from
taking an action that would potentially disrupt the opportunity here for a
diplomatic resolution of this challenge.”
The
legislation’s bipartisan support reflects pressure on Obama to get a tough
accord with Iran or walk
away, which may set the stage for military action. Obama has said that Iran,
which says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, won’t be allowed to
gain nuclear weapons.
Menendez
said the legislation, which would require further reductions in Iranian oil
sales, gives the president flexibility to conduct the negotiations.
The
sanctions legislation also would apply additional penalties to strategic
elements of the Iranian economy, including engineering, mining and
construction, according to the statement.
If
implemented, “the new petroleum sanctions will cost Iran over $3 billion per
month in lost exports of crude oil, fuel oil and lease condensates, and
billions of dollars more from the blacklisting of key Iranian strategic sectors
and the loss of access to overseas foreign exchange reserves,” Mark Dubowitz,
executive director of the Foundation for Defense of
Democracies, said in an e-mail.
The
legislation would let the president waive the sanctions if negotiations are
proceeding and Iran is complying with the interim accord reached last month in
Geneva. The legislation sets stringent requirements for what Iran must do in
order for the president to waive sanctions under a final accord.
The
measure says that a final deal must include the dismantling of “Iran’s illicit
nuclear infrastructure, including enrichment and reprocessing capabilities and
facilities, the heavy water reactor and production plant at Arak, and any
nuclear weapon components and technology, so that Iran is precluded from a
nuclear breakout capability and prevented from pursuing both uranium and
plutonium pathways to a nuclear weapon.”
Iran
has asserted that it won’t entirely give up its current uranium enrichment
capabilities, which provide the Islamic Republic with the capability to quickly
produce nuclear weapons if it chooses to do so.