Sanctions should target Iran’s crackdown on human rights, not nuclear program: Congressman

Washington, 18 November (WashingtonTV)— Congressman Howard Berman said that he would like to have US-led sanctions be used to stop Iran’s crackdown on demonstrators and “people who want change” in that country, and not its nuclear program, during a speech to the National Endowment for Democracy [NED] on 18 November in Washington.

Berman, a Democrat from California, who as chairman of the House Foreign Relations Committee [HFAC] recently passed an Iran sanctions bill, said that he does not believe the Obama administration’s engagement policy will succeed, and pressed his support for sanctions as a means of resolving the nuclear standoff with Iran.

“We are going through an engagement process. I don’t have a lot of faith in that, with that regime. There is nothing I see that makes me think that’s going to be successful. I personally am very committed to doing what we can, peacefully, to stop Iran’s nuclear weapons program. We’re talking about, hopefully international sanctions to try and affect the regime’s calculations about the costs of what they are pursing, versus the benefits of stopping to pursue it,” Berman told an audience during an NED-sponsored conference on democracy in the Middle East.

However Berman questioned the perceived goal of sanctions being used as leverage to convince Iran to give up its nuclear weapons program, while ignoring what he called Iran’s “unbelievable movement that is developing” in the wake of Iran’s 12 June disputed elections.

“Should those sanctions be premised on the nuclear weapons program? And the acts to show that they are going to stop enrichment and allow inspections and be more transparent, and persuade the rest of the world that they have given up that goal? Or should the sanctions be based on stopping them on various aspects of what they are doing in Iran with the people who want change and who are demonstrating and exercising peacefully their rights?” said Berman.

Street protests against the 12 June elections mushroomed into a full-fledged opposition to Iran’s ruling government, now widely known as the “Green Movement.”

Berman went on to suggest that a US policy of using sanctions to prevent a nuclear Iran, and to support the demonstrators, may be mutually exclusive.

“But ultimately I’d love to have the sanctions to focus on (helping people who want change) … The timeline of the nuclear program and the timeline of achieving that are different. And if you pursue (helping those people), are you abandoning any effort to get them to change their mind on their nuclear program?” asked Berman.

The House Foreign Relations Committee overwhelmingly passed on 28 October the Iran Refined Petroleum Sanctions Act, legislation that authorizes the US President to sanction any person or entity that sells gasoline and other refined petroleum products to Iran. It also allows the president to sanction insurance, reinsurance, and shipping companies that facilitate this trade.

This bill was introduced seven months ago by Berman, and currently has 336 co-sponsors. The Senate version of the bill, introduced by Democratic Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana in April, currently has 76 co-sponsors.

"I am not giving up on the possibility that diplomacy will succeed in bringing about a suspension of Iran's uranium enrichment program," Berman told the HFAC during the markup hearing of the bill.

"But if diplomacy does not produce the desired results within a very short period of time, there should be a robust sanctions regime imposed by the UN Security Council - or, failing that, by a coalition of economically powerful, like-minded states that, one hopes, would include the United States, the EU nations, Japan and several of the key oil-producing Arab States," he added.

There is no publically declared timeline within Congress or the Obama administration as to when the United States plans to shift to a sanctions policy as a means of pressuring Iran to negotiate an agreement with the P5+1 group over its nuclear program.

But US Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs, Philip J. Crowley, on 13 November hinted that the United States will evaluate its engagement policy towards Iran at the end of this year, and will consider applying pressure if progress is not made.

“We also will, as the President has said, at the end of the year, evaluate progress that has been made in our offer of engagement and will draw some conclusions based on any progress made, or lack of progress made, at that time,” Crowley told reporters at the Foreign Press Center.

Source: WashingtonTV correspondent in Washington

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