Tuesday
Apr282009
Bi-partisan Bill Gives Obama More Power Over Iran Sanctions
Tuesday, April 28, 2009 at 3:07PM
By Kayleigh Harvey - Talk Radio News Service
Liberals and Conservatives stood together at a Senate press conference today to discuss the Iran Refined Petroleum Sanctions Act.
Senator Evan Bayh (R-Ind.) author of the bill, along with Senators Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Senator Jon Kyl (D-Ind.), said that bi-partisanship had been achieved on this bill because of the “critical importance of this issue.”
The purpose of the legislation, which expands on the Iran Sanction of 1996, Lieberman said is, “to empower President Obama...by providing him with the explicit authority to target Iran’s achilles economic heel, which is its dependence on imports of petroleum...most notably gasoline.”
Lieberman accused previous legislation of being “quite ambiguous” and said that this legislation would “eliminate” that ambiguity. The new proposal would provide the President with a “powerful new weapon to use in the negotiations with Iran,” said Lieberman. Adding it is up to President Obama to decide, “when, where and against whom to use it.”
Bayh said the bill would help to “strengthen the President’s outreach” to Iran. Adding “if events continue go as they are currently going, then at some point during the next two to four years Iran will have a nuclear weapon”. This would have a “destabilizing” effect on the entire world,” said Bayh. This bill, he said, “gives us our best opportunity to avoid that outcome without the resort to military force.”
Kyl said the bill gives the President the tool to “stop companies who continue to sell refined gasoline to Iran or provide refining capacity from doing business in the United States or through the American banking systems.”
“In effect what we are saying to the few companies in the world who provide this refined gasoline to Iran is, ‘You can either do business in our $13 trillion economy with us, or you can do business with Iran with its $250 billion economy, but you can’t do both,’” said Kyl.
In closing Lieberman said, “this is important legislation introduced at a critical time whose consequences for the people of America, Iran, Israel and the Arab world are going to be quite serious.” Adding that he hoped this bill would make it “more likely” for the “diplomatic engagements” between President Obama and the Irani government to succeed and that “they will peacefully abandon their nuclear ambitions.”
Twenty-five U.S. Senators, from both parties, have currently signed their name as a co-sponsors to this piece of legislation.
Liberals and Conservatives stood together at a Senate press conference today to discuss the Iran Refined Petroleum Sanctions Act.
Senator Evan Bayh (R-Ind.) author of the bill, along with Senators Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Senator Jon Kyl (D-Ind.), said that bi-partisanship had been achieved on this bill because of the “critical importance of this issue.”
The purpose of the legislation, which expands on the Iran Sanction of 1996, Lieberman said is, “to empower President Obama...by providing him with the explicit authority to target Iran’s achilles economic heel, which is its dependence on imports of petroleum...most notably gasoline.”
Lieberman accused previous legislation of being “quite ambiguous” and said that this legislation would “eliminate” that ambiguity. The new proposal would provide the President with a “powerful new weapon to use in the negotiations with Iran,” said Lieberman. Adding it is up to President Obama to decide, “when, where and against whom to use it.”
Bayh said the bill would help to “strengthen the President’s outreach” to Iran. Adding “if events continue go as they are currently going, then at some point during the next two to four years Iran will have a nuclear weapon”. This would have a “destabilizing” effect on the entire world,” said Bayh. This bill, he said, “gives us our best opportunity to avoid that outcome without the resort to military force.”
Kyl said the bill gives the President the tool to “stop companies who continue to sell refined gasoline to Iran or provide refining capacity from doing business in the United States or through the American banking systems.”
“In effect what we are saying to the few companies in the world who provide this refined gasoline to Iran is, ‘You can either do business in our $13 trillion economy with us, or you can do business with Iran with its $250 billion economy, but you can’t do both,’” said Kyl.
In closing Lieberman said, “this is important legislation introduced at a critical time whose consequences for the people of America, Iran, Israel and the Arab world are going to be quite serious.” Adding that he hoped this bill would make it “more likely” for the “diplomatic engagements” between President Obama and the Irani government to succeed and that “they will peacefully abandon their nuclear ambitions.”
Twenty-five U.S. Senators, from both parties, have currently signed their name as a co-sponsors to this piece of legislation.
Senators Hold Press Conf. on War Supplemental Funding Bill and Detainee Photos
U.S. Senators John McCain (R-Ariz), Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.) and Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) held a press conference today to discuss the war supplemental and detainee photos.
Said Sen. Graham "to me, if Congress punts, we take a pass and we're worried about this bill passing more than these photos not being released, we are letting a lot of people down who are counting on us." Graham added that every photo is like a "bullet for our enemies," and that President Obama must take some executive action on classifying the documents before the Supreme Court’s final decision is made.
Lieberman agreed, and said that aside from passing the legislation, there is one "clear alternative" and that is for the President to release an executive order classifying the order.
Sen. McCain said the President should be publicly speaking out about this issue now. He thinks Obama is being "strangely quiet" about it. McCain said this issue should be taken seriously because it is a major security issue for our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
According to Sen. Lieberman, none of his colleagues in the Senate as well as most House members oppose publicly releasing the photos.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she would not be able to pass the supplemental war funding bill without the support of some of the Democrats.
Sen. Lieberman said opposition to bills happens all the time but in this case, it can’t be taken lightly. He said it is a matter of life and death for our soldiers. Lieberman said he did call the White House and warned that the President’s authority is being challenge by the small group of members in the House blocking this bill.