By Roberta Rampton and Rachelle Younglai
WASHINGTON, April 16 (Reuters) – U.S. lawmakers on Monday
pushed for more sanctions against Iran after high-level talks
between the Islamic country and global powers failed to stop
Tehran from developing its nuclear program.
Although Iran, the United States and five other world powers
said they were content with the progress made toward resolving a
dispute over Iran’s nuclear ambitions, U.S. lawmakers were
unimpressed.
“The United States should not mistake positive diplomatic
dialogue for compliance with United Nations Security Council
resolutions,” a spokesman for Republican Senator Mark Kirk said.
Kirk and numerous lawmakers have been pressuring the White
House to get tougher with Iran and are pushing for a range of
additional penalties that would further isolate Iran and prevent
the regime from trading with the rest of the world.
U.S. sanctions that President Barack Obama signed into law
in December have already forced some of Iran’s biggest trading
partners, such as Japan, to reduce their Iranian oil imports.
Other countries are scrambling to stop relying on Iranian
crude before a mid-year deadline. If they fail to do so, those
countries’ banks could be blocked from U.S. markets.
“We have 5 weeks to convince the Iranians that the sanctions
we passed in December were only a first step,” said Democratic
Senator Robert Menendez.
Iran and the group of world powers, which comprises the five
permanent members of the U.N. Security Council – the United
States, Russia, China, France and Britain – plus Germany, have
agreed to reconvene talks in Baghdad May 23.
A number of Republican and Democratic Senators support
legislation that would force the administration to target Iran’s
main shipping company and expel all Iranian banks from a global
electronic payment system needed to help transfer funds.
But the legislation stalled when Senate Majority Leader
Harry Reid refused to allow lawmakers to consider adding further
penalties to the bill. It is unclear whether Reid will allow
senators to vote on the bill before the Baghdad talks.
Menendez said it was crucial that Congress pass the
legislation as quickly as possible to send a message to the
Iranian leadership that the United States “won’t allow them to
use the Baghdad talks to stall for more time to advance their
covert nuclear program.”
(Reporting By Roberta Rampton, Rachelle Younglai; Editing by
Dan Grebler)
