•  washington
• Friday, May 27, 2011
• Inter Press Service

U.S. lawmakers have introduced a new package of unilateral sanctions targeting Iran that would challenge U.S. President Obama's discretionary authority to enforce such sanctions and would impose comprehensive restrictions on foreign entities that ship, refine or provide any other related services to Iran's energy sector.

Both versions of the bills in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, which have bipartisan support, would effectively translate into a de-facto international embargo on all of Iran's oil, petroleum and natural gas exports, according to analysts here.

If passed, the new round of legislation will be without the multilateral consensus on sanctioning Iran for its nuclear programme that the Obama administration secured at the U.N last year.

'While our sanctions have made it more difficult for Iran to acquire the knowledge and materials it needs to achieve its nuclear goals, we must fully enforce all sanctions and hold people, companies, and governments accountable for doing business with the regime that poses the most immediate threat to the region's stability,' Robert Menendez, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Wednesday.

With oil prices in the U.S. weighing heavily on the pockets of millions of consumers in an already tight economic climate, enacting a law that would place an embargo on Iranian oil and gas exports may have a destabilising effect on global prices.

'These new proposals are being sold to lawmakers as merely closing loopholes in existing Iran sanctions. But if they read the bill, they'll find out it actually imposes an oil embargo on Iran that could raise gas prices and threaten the U.S. economy, not to mention cause humanitarian suffering in Iran,' Jamal Abdi, policy director at the National Iranian American Council, told IPS.

'Even lawmakers who haven't batted an eye at the prospect of hurting ordinary Iranians will have to ask themselves - does Congress really want to start punishing ordinary Americans in the name of Iran sanctions now too?' Abdi added. With the world's third largest proven oil reserves and the second largest gas reserves, Iran produces around five percent of the world's total crude oil.

On Tuesday, the U.S. State Department imposed new sanctions on seven foreign companies that have conducted business with Iran — the first major action taken by the Obama administration since the law authorising sanctions on Iran's refined petroleum products was passed last year — which comes after an announcement that the U.S. will ease restrictions on Iranian citizens applying for student visas.

In a similar move, the European Union leveled sanctions against an additional 100 foreign companies on Tuesday. According to the State Department, refined petroleum products imported to Iran have dropped by as much as 60 percent in past months due to the 2010 sanctions law — to meet domestic demand before the sanctions, one-third of Iran's total consumption of refined petroleum was imported - and the Iranian government has forgone millions of dollars in export revenues as businesses convert facilities for domestic petrol production to compensate for the lost imports.

'By imposing these sanctions, we're sending a clear message to companies around the world: Those who continue to irresponsibly support Iran's energy sector or help facilitate Iran's efforts to evade U.S. sanctions will face significant consequences,' Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg said Wednesday.

© Inter Press Service (2011) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service