As the Obama administration pursues
new multilateral Iran sanctions at the U.N., Congress
is getting ready to move forward with its own sanctions bill, which the
administration is still not happy with.
A senior Senate aide close to the process said the
House and Senate will soon move to conference on resolving the two versions of
the Iran sanctions legislation, one led by Rep. Howard Berman, D-CA, and the other sponsored by Chris Dodd, D-CT. The State Department had
been negotiating with key senators over Dodd's bill,
seeking an exemption for any countries they determine to be "cooperating" with
the U.S. on the sanctions regime.
This WashingtonPost
article makes it seem like the Obama administration is just
beginning to push for exemptions for all the P5+1 countries, including Russia
and China, but actually that's
been
the State Department's position since December.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-NV, has
faced pressure not to dawdle with the bill, passing it
through his chamber at
the end of January. But the conference, where the State
Department planned to get the exemptions it wants, wasn't expected to go
forward until the U.N. game had played out.
And while the conference could last a long time and
no final vote push is imminent, several congressional aides told The Cable Friday that their bosses were getting
impatient with the ever-slipping deadline for U.N. action and that a large
exemption that includes Russia and China would not fly on Capitol Hill.
"When we had the discussions in
December about cooperating countries, it boiled down to the fact that the
administration was demanding an exemption that was large enough to drive a
truck through and that was not well received in the Congress," said one senior congressional
aide close to the discussions.
The administration had pledged to
wrap up at the U.N. in February during the French rotating presidency, then
that slipped to March, and now lawmakers are being told April. The timing and
the strength of the U.N. sanctions will directly affect what Congress does, the
aide said.
"People on both sides want to give
the administration the time they need and there's a genuine desire to be
helpful, but the more this things drags on, the more there is going to be
growing pressure in Congress about this," said the aide.
The aide spelled out two
hypothetical scenarios: In Scenario A, the Security Council puts in place a
very tough sanctions regime with China's signoff. In that case, the imperative
for stringent congressionally mandated sanctions could diminish.
In Scenario B, despite a year spent
on engagement, sold as necessary to rally the international community,
sanctions are weak and China is not forced to change its behavior. In that case,
the aide said, it will be very hard for the administration to turn to Congress
and say "You don't need to move on tough sanctions now."
Some senators don't think an
exemption for cooperating countries is necessary in the first place, since the
bill gives the president the power to waive any sanctions if he chooses. One
senior Senate aide said that his boss will resist any attempts to water down
the Senate version of the bill.
Also, "I have not heard anybody who
thinks it's a good idea to exempt China from the sanctions regime," this aide
said.
“We continue to assess Iran is keeping open the option to develop nuclear weapons in part by developing various nuclear capabilities that bring it closer to being able to produce such weapons, should it choose to do so. We do not know, however, if Iran will eventually decide to build nuclear weapons.”
And the "721" report from a few days ago:
http://www.dni.gov/reports/2009_721_Report.pdf
"…we do not know whether Iran will eventually decide to produce nuclear weapons.”
Let us re-cap: to the best of the US IC’s knowledge the Iranian government has NOT decided to make nuclear weapons.
OK?
Oh, and someone pls pass the msg to AIPAC also.
What a wonder it would be if our Zionist media pulled its head out of its anus and spoke the truth about Iran, instead of leading us into another war.
Josh Rogin reports on national security and foreign policy from the Pentagon to Foggy Bottom, the White House to Embassy Row, for The Cable.
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