Iran
diplomacy hits new sanctions
roadblock By Jasmin Ramsey
WASHINGTON - The United States Congress's
rush to pass new sanctions against Iran ahead of
the August recess comes amid an intensified drive
to pin the Iranian government to deadly acts of
international terrorism and amplified moves by
American politicians to demonstrate their support
for Israel ahead of the November presidential
election.
The push to implement more
punitive measures against an increasingly
demonized Iran could undermine efforts to resolve
the long-standing impasse over Iran's nuclear
program peacefully.
Jamal Abdi, policy
director for the National Iranian American Council
(NIAC), told IPS that even the mere "threat" of
the new sanctions, which will be a combination of
two bills passed in December and May by the House
of Representatives and the
Senate that target
Iran's energy sector and its ability to conduct
financial transactions electronically, "have had a
negative effect on the Iran nuclear talks and
limited the president's ability to use sanctions
as a tool for leverage".
"When this bill
passes, it will further aggravate the chain of
escalation between Iran and the US, and if it
includes 'economic warfare' measures on top of
those already in place, the Iranians will be
inclined to respond with equal escalation," he
said.
A July 25 hearing on Iran's alleged
support for international terrorism saw testimony
from expert witnesses recommending that US policy
should be focused on gathering international
support for holding Iran responsible and weakening
its influence in the region.
According to
the written testimony of Matthew Levitt of the
Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP
or the Washington Institute), "Iran cannot win a
conventional war against the West, but it can
exact a high price through asymmetric warfare."
"Exposing Iran's involvement in
international terrorism is now more important than
ever, both to deny the group its coveted
'reasonable deniability' and to build an
international consensus for action against Iran's
support for terrorism," he wrote.
Danielle
Pletka, vice president for foreign policy
programming at the neo-conservative American
Enterprise Institute (AEI), wrote in her testimony
that "the fall of the house of Assad would be
devastating to Iran. So we clearly have an
interest in Syria's future."
Pletka also
claimed that US policy is geared towards
"tolerance for Iran's sponsorship of terrorism"
and during her oral statements asked why US
officials had not publicly declared that Iran was
responsible for a bombing in Bulgaria that killed
five Israeli tourists. To date, no evidence has
been presented to support that allegation.
Amid ongoing efforts to tie Iran to
international terrorism, the US-led sanctions
regime charges ahead. But while the full
traditional legislative process has now been
bypassed so the pending Iran sanctions can be
passed before Friday, the details of the bill in
question have been waiting to be finalized for
more than half a year.
Republican-spearheaded efforts to include
harsher measures have clashed with Democrat-led
moves to pass the bill as is, resulting in
gridlock until a compromise is reached.
According to a NIAC press document, one
such provision, the "Kirk Amendment", would result
in "unintended consequences" that would harm
ordinary Iranians such as prohibiting
Iranian-American citizens from sending money to
family members in Iran and stopping pharmaceutical
companies from selling medicines to Iranian
hospitals "regardless of whether the Treasury
Department granted them a license to do so".
M J Rosenberg, a veteran Israel analyst
who worked for years at the American Israel Public
Affairs Committee (AIPAC), told IPS that congress
is rushing to pass the sanctions because they
"promised AIPAC that they would and want to
deliver before the election season goes into full
swing in September".
"Sanctions bills seem
to originate from congress, but they actually
originate from inside AIPAC," he said.
Rosenberg, who has been consistently
critical of AIPAC and other US Israel lobby groups
in his writings and commentary, also said that
Iran is at the top of AIPAC's agenda.
"Look at AIPAC's conference in the spring.
The Iran sanctions issue was AIPAC's main issue.
If you want to show your donors that you are 100%
for the cause - the cause being first sanctions
and then war with Iran - you have to co-sponsor
bills and get them passed," he said.
On
July 27, President Barack Obama's signing into law
of the "United States-Israel Enhanced Security
Cooperation Act of 2012", which gives Israel an
additional US$70 million in military aid and
expands military and civil cooperation, coincided
with the presumptive Republican White House
Nominee Mitt Romney's trip to Israel for the
foreign-policy focused portion of his campaign.
While in Jerusalem, Romney had a friendly
meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu and attended a fundraiser that
reportedly resulted in more than $1 million in
donations from 45 Jewish donors.
According
to the AP, billionaire casino magnate Sheldon
Adelson, who has pledged to spend $100 million to
defeat President Obama, was seated next Romney at
the event and joined in a standing ovation when
Romney declared Jerusalem to be the Israeli
capital.
Ongoing efforts by the
presidential contenders to demonstrate their
support for Israel have been described by analysts
as an effort to capture a traditionally
Democrat-aligned "Jewish vote".
On July
27, Gallup issued new polling data showing that
from June 1-July 26 Jewish registered voters still
favored Obama over Romney by 68% to 25%.
Earlier in the year, a survey of more than
1,000 self-identified Jews conducted between late
February and early March by the Public Religion
Research Institute (PPRI) showed that Jewish
voters, who make up only about 2% of the national
population but comprise more than that in several
key "swing states", such as Florida, Pennsylvania,
New Jersey, and Illinois, remain largely liberal
and Democratic in their political orientation and
that US Jews are more concerned about issues such
as social justice than foreign policy.
Asked what issue was most important to
them in the upcoming election, 51% cited the
economy and 15% the growing gap between rich and
poor. Only 2% of respondents cited Iran.
The relative lesser importance accorded by
respondents to both Israel and Iran is remarkable
in light of strenuous efforts over most of the
past year by all but one of the Republican
presidential candidates, as well as Republican
lawmakers in the congress, to drive a wedge
between Obama and his Jewish supporters over
precisely those two issues.
According to
Rosenberg, campaigning to the Pro-Israel community
is "not about the votes, it's about money".
"Adelson is big in the Romney camp and has
lots of friends in the Israel community and is
trying to pull them away from supporting Democrats
by saying he will be tougher on Iran," he said.
"It's not about votes, it's about getting
these millionaires and billionaires into your
corner," said Rosenberg. "I would say that about
politics in general. Ultimately money turns into
votes. But really, when it comes to the pro-Israel
community, it's strictly about the money."
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