WH opposes new Iran sanctions

[boxcar]

White House opposes new Iran sanctions


The White House announced its opposition to a new round of Iran sanctions that the Senate unanimously approved Friday, in the latest instance of Congress pushing for more aggressive punitive measures on Iran than the administration deems prudent. pruden
On Thursday, Sens. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) andMark Kirk (R-IL) introduced the amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act, which the Senate passed 94-0.

The new legislative language would blacklist Iran's energy, port, shipping, and shipbuilding sectors, while also placing new restrictions on Iran's ability to get insurance for all these industries. The legislation would also vastly expand U.S. support for human rights inside Iran and impose new sanctions on Iranians who divert humanitarian assistance from its intended purpose.

[jerryfmcompushaft]

Any indiation on what the White House bases it's opposition?

[boxcar]

Either the WH did not think of it first or it might offend Russia and China. Notice that that the Senate unanimously approved the sanctions

[jerryfmcompushaft]

Senate unanimously approved the sanctions

A rare example of logic

[boxcar]

But the White House told several Senate offices Thursday evening that the administration was opposed to the amendment. National Security Spokesman Tommy Vietor sent The Cable the administration's official position, explaining the White House's view the sanctions aren't needed and aren't helpful at this time.

"As we focus with our partners on effectively implementing these efforts, we believe additional authorities now threaten to undercut these efforts," he said. "We also have concerns with some of the formulations as currently drafted in the text and want to work through them with our congressional partners to make the law more effective and consistent with the current sanctions law to ensure we don't undercut our success to date."

An e-mail from the NSC's legislative affairs office to some Senate Democrats late Thursday evening, obtained by The Cable, went into extensive detail about the administration's concerns about the new sanctions legislation, including that it might get in the way of the administration's efforts to implement the last round of Iran sanctions, the Iran Threat Reduction and Syria Human Rights Act (TRA), to which it flatly objected at the time.

[jerryfmcompushaft]

One gets the impression that this administration's foreign policy is akin to a boat with a broken rudder.....

[Swampy]

I've given up on why Hillary would do anything.

[Swampy]

Sanctions have led to Iran's oil revenues falling by 45%. Whoopee!

Won't prevent AhmedGoneCrazy from getting the bomb, but still whoopee.

[Sir John]

"One gets the impression that this administration's foreign policy is akin to a boat with a broken rudder....."

I will bet America's friends AND enemies have come to the same conclusion.


SJ