WarSclerotic

Senators work on new Iran sanctions bill as White House lobbies against | The Times of Israel.

Lawmakers from both parties spend Thanksgiving recess planning new penalties they hope to pass before Christmas

By Times of Israel staff December 2, 2013, 6:55 am

The reactor building of the nuclear power plant just outside the southern city of Bushehr, Iran (photo credit: AP/Mehr News Agency, Majid Asgaripour, File)

US Senators from both the Democratic and Republican parties are spending their Thanksgiving recess forging a new agreement aimed at passing a new sanctions bill against Iran before Christmas.

According to a report in the Washington Post Monday, “a bipartisan juggernaut of senior senators” is currently working on the agreement, while the White House is trying to lobby against the move, afraid that it could thwart talks to reach a final deal with Tehran on curbing its nuclear program, set to begin in January.

“If you want to hold our feet to the fire on the final deal, fine, do that,” a senior Obama administration official was quoted by the paper as saying. “If people have concerns about elements of a final agreement, come in and tell us. But that is a separate discussion from passing a sanctions bill in the middle of negotiations .”

Administrations officials argue that additional sanctions now would violate the interim agreement signed between world powers and Iran in Geneva last weekend. That deal promised to ease sanctions on the Islamic Republic in exchange for Tehran halting its controversial nuclear program, which it insists is for peaceful purposes.

“Our view is that passing these sanctions during the life of the negotiations would complicate the negotiations in a number of ways,” said the official quoted in the report.

The Senate is back in session December 9, and between now and then, according to the report, “the White House has organized a full-court press to persuade lawmakers not to act. In addition to briefings for anyone who wants one, [President Barack] Obama, Secretary of State John F. Kerry, national security adviser Susan E. Rice and other top officials are making personal calls. Kerry sent a video to his former Capitol Hill colleagues explaining the deal, ‘because some people are putting out some misinformation on it.’”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been a firm advocate of increased sanctions on Iran, arguing that the measures are what brought the regime to the negotiating table in the first place, and that the lifting of sanctions would pave the way for Tehran to produce nuclear weapons.

On Sunday, Netanyahu vowed to “not be silent” when he sees that “interests vital to the security of Israel’s citizens are in danger.”

“I would like to dispel any illusions. Iran aspires to attain an atomic bomb,” he said while on a state visit to Italy.

Netanyahu has publicly savaged the Geneva interim accord with Iran, signed early last week, as a “historic mistake.” Officials in Jerusalem have repeatedly castigated President Barack Obama for overseeing a failed negotiating process with Iran under which, they claim, Iran’s nuclear weapons drive is not being thwarted while the sanctions pressure against Iran is collapsing.

That sentiment is shared by some in Washington. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), a proponet of the bill said that new sanctions would “strengthen the administration’s hand” and positions the United States “for the possibility that [a permanent] agreement cannot ultimately be struck,”

“It would make clear to the Iranians if they don’t strike a deal, this is what’s coming,” he was quoted by the paper as saying.

On Friday, in a widely circulated editorial, the Washington Post charged that the United States and its partners had already agreed to allow Iran to enrich uranium “with mutually agreed parameters,” and gave their initial consent to a “sunset clause” on international restrictions in the nuclear deal negotiated in Geneva last weekend.

The interim nuclear agreement signed with Iran last week leaves the United States and world powers at a disadvantage in negotiating a future long-term agreement, the editorial read, adding that “the fact sheet distributed by the Obama administration about the nuclear agreement with Iran is notable for its omissions.”

The deal sought to curb Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for eased sanctions — by capping Tehran’s uranium enrichment capabilities, stopping plans to build a plutonium-producing reactor in Arak and having Iran agree to surprise international inspections at nuclear sites. But, the paper notes, major concessions were made to the Islamic Republic on the terms for a final deal.

It urges that a balance be set ahead of expected talks for that permanent agreement.

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