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 Sens. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., and Mark Kirk, R-Ill., hope to have
the bill ready for other lawmakers to consider when the Senate
returns Dec. 9 from its two-week recess, according to legislative
aides. Many in Congress are skeptical, if not outright hostile, to
the deal reached by Iran and world powers over the weekend in
Geneva.
The Kirk-Menendez measure would require the administration to
certify every 30 days that Iran is adhering to the terms of the
six-month interim agreement and that it hasn't been involved in any
act of terrorism against the United States.
Without that certification, sanctions worth more than $1 billion a
month would be re-imposed and new sanctions would be added. The new
measures would include bans on investing in Iran's engineering,
mining and construction industries and a global boycott of Iranian
oil by 2015. Foreign companies and banks violating the sanctions
would be barred from doing business in the United States.
The senators hope to send the bill to the White House before the end
of the year, said the aides, who spoke on condition of anonymity
because they weren't authorized to speak by name on the matter.
"I do not believe we should further reduce our sanctions, nor
abstain from preparations to impose new sanctions," Menendez, the
chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said after
Sunday's interim agreement was announced.
The powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee echoed the
call.
New sanctions are needed "so that Iran will face immediate
consequences should it renege on its commitments or refuse to
negotiate an acceptable final agreement," the group said.
Imposing stiffer economic penalties against Iran enjoys wide support
in Congress. President Barack Obama has pleaded personally with
lawmakers to give him more time and room for diplomatic efforts. The
interim agreement promises no new penalties against Iran while it is
in effect.
Administration officials say new pressure from Congress now could
prompt the Iranians to walk away from the deal and cause unrest
between the U.S. and its negotiating partners in the so-called P5+1
— Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia.
"We need to give diplomacy a chance to work," Tony Blinken, Obama's
deputy national security adviser, said Monday on MSNBC. "New
sanctions now, on top of the ones that are already in existence and
will continue to be implemented, we fear would be taken as a sign of
bad faith, not just by the Iranians but, indeed, by our partners in
the P5+1 and other countries around the world whose cooperation we
require to implement the sanctions and make them effective."
Blinken said sanctions can be turned up "on a dime" six months from
now if no comprehensive agreement is reached in the interim.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has yet to determine how
he'll react to the agreement, Democratic aides said.
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Reid said last week that the Senate would move forward with new
sanctions when lawmakers return from their Thanksgiving break. But
he took a more cautious approach Monday, saying on NPR's "Diane Rehm
Show" that Menendez and Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., chairman of the
Senate Banking Committee, will study the interim agreement with Iran
and "hold hearings if necessary."
"If we need work on this, if we need stronger sanctions, I am sure
we will do that," Reid said.
The interim agreement allows Iran to keep central elements of its
nuclear program, which it says is for peaceful purposes only, while
capping its uranium enrichment to levels well below the
concentration of fissionable material needed for nuclear weapons.
Iran also must grant U.N. inspectors greater access to nuclear
sites, neutralize higher-enriched uranium stockpiles and halt work
on a planned heavy water reactor near Arak.
In exchange, Iran receives about $7 billion in relief over the next
six months from international sanctions that have crippled its
economy. More than half of that amount comes from money now in
frozen accounts to which the Iranians will be given access. Iran
also will be allowed to restart limited sales of petrochemicals and
other products.
Having voted new sanctions against Iran four months ago, the House
is waiting for the Senate to act. The House would likely give
overwhelming support to any new legislation against Iran, given that
it voted 400-20 in favor of new penalties in July.
The administration wants no new sanctions laws enacted while the
world tests Iran's seriousness to curb its nuclear program. That
applies even if the fresh sanctions come with wide waiver authority,
according to congressional aides who have spoken with administration
officials.
To that end, Secretary of State John Kerry planned a series of
conference and private telephone calls with key lawmakers this week.
Mark Dubowitz, an Iran sanctions expert at the Foundation for
Defense of Democracies, said Obama would be wise to back a kind of
sanctions-in-waiting law from Congress at this time, if only to
remind countries around the world that Iran isn't open for business.
The Kirk-Menendez bill "would be a gift to Obama and would help
prevent the unraveling of the sanctions regime," Dubowitz said. "The
sanctions were about fear and now the market psychology is changing
from fear to greed. Greed overrides fear."
[Associated
Press; BRADLEY KLAPPER]
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