December 15, 2009
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Berman: Iran sanctions bill empowers Obama
Fresh from the overwhelming passage of the Iran sanctions bill he introduced, Rep. Howard Berman said he believed his bill would empower the Obama administration’s Iran policy efforts, not force its hand.
“The House passage of this legislation empowers the administration to point out that, ‘Here is a way a lot of people in Congress want to go, and we think there is a better way, but this issue will not go away,’’ Berman (D-CA), the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told a small group of reporters after this afternoon's vote.
“The administration did not say, ‘Go ahead,’ and they did not tell me not to go ahead,” he acknowledged. “And I have been as transparent as I could be with them."
The White House did not have immediate comment on the bill's passing.
For his part, Berman told reporters that he believed that there was still some time to let the administration pursue international sanctions, first at the United Nations Security Council, or failing that, among a broad based coalition of the willing. And he insisted that his bill mandating U.S. unilateral sanctions does not imperil international solidarity on the Iran issue.
The bill, the Iran Refined Petroleum Sanctions Act, would sanction foreign companies that sell refined petroleum to Iran, or help Iran with its own domestic refining capacity, "by depriving those companies of access to the US market," a statement from Berman's office said.
It passed in the House today after an hour’s debate 412 for, 12 against, 4 present. A hotlined Senate version of the bill did not pass a unanimous consent motion last week, and the administration is currently quietly working with key Senators on possible modifications on the Senate draft.
At issue are two points: whether U.S. unilateral sanctions would so alienate other countries with which the U.S. is currently closely working on Iran that it fractures the international alliance. Secondly, is the issue of whether the president will have the discretion to be able to impose sanctions, or Congress will require him to impose the sanctions, or seek a waiver in cases where he would choose not to.
More broadly, the legislation raises the question of how much flexibility the Obama administration will have to try to continue pursuing a complex international diplomatic strategy on Iran, or how much Congress will seek to essentially force the administration to take a more aggressive unilateral approach.
The House bill as passed would require the President to seek a waiver from Congress in every case the sanctions would not be imposed.
Asked if he would accept a final bill that gives the president greater discretion on the matter, Berman said he would be quite open to a conference committee exempting foreign countries that are shown to have a robust sanctions regime in place from a final conferenced bill. So for example, if a German entity was found in violation by selling petroleum products or equipment to Iran, but Germany was exempted from the conferenced bill, the president would not have to come to Congress for a waiver to avoid sanctioning the German entity.
Israeli ambassador to Washington Michael Oren praised the House vote. "The State of Israel deeply appreciates the unflagging commitment of President Obama and the U.S. Congress to prevent Iran from acquiring the military nuclear capability threatening world peace," Oren said in a statement. "The State of Israel stands together with the United States in its historic effort to safeguard Middle East security and achieve a lasting peace.”
Also praising it were several American Jewish groups, including AIPAC, the National Jewish Democratic Alliance, and the Israel Project.
But some Iran experts expressed doubt that U.S. unilateral petroleum sanctions would change Iranian nuclear behavior.
"I'm not confident that this bill, if implemented, would moderate Tehran's nuclear ambitions," the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace's Karim Sadjadpour said. "Not because it won't inflict harm on the Iranian economy, but because the Iranian regime has long been willing to sacrifice the economic well-being of its population in order to forward their own political and ideological aims."
"I would prefer to see targeted, multilateral sanctions on the institution of the Revolutionary Guards," he continued. "They are the ones amassing an economic fortune, managing the nuclear project, and brutalizing the population. I think we are better off trying to weaken the Revolutionary Guards, rather than than trying to deny Iranian people gasoline and heating oil."
Other foreign governments have watched the Congressional Iran sanctions drama with a mix of remove and perhaps slight uneasiness. One European diplomat said a senior White House official had recently told him that the Obama White House seeks to use what it calls the pressure track to try to get Iran back on the engagement track over the next several months. The senior White House official also said that U.S. and international credibility would be hurt if they didn't demonstrate that they were serious after weeks of telegraphing the end of the year deadline for Iran to show progress on the engagement track, or face consequences.
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