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For second time in a month, GOP
thwarts anti-Iran sanctions.
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October 16 • 2008
Ron Kampeas
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
R
epublicans in the U.S. Senate
have sunk anti-Iran sanc-
tions for the second time in
less than a month, drawing allegations
that they are putting politics ahead of
the need to confront Tehran's nuclear
program.
Senate Democrats made one final
bid last week to pass legislation that
would tighten sanctions aimed at
getting Iran to stand down from its
suspected nuclear weapons program.
Among other things, the stalled mea-
sure would have facilitated efforts to
divest from the Islamic Republic.
Republicans blocked it the evening
of Oct. 2, leading Democrats once
again to suggest that the GOP was
playing politics by obstructing leg-
islation championed by Sen. Barack
Obama, Dill.
"We've tried to get this done in this
body; there's been objection by the
Republicans. That's unfortunate," said
Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., the Senate
majority leader. He spoke after Sen.
Wayne Allard, R-Colo., exercised his
prerogative to obstruct the legislation.
The Senate has adjourned this
session and it is unlikely that it will
reconvene before the new Congress next
year, when the bill would have to be
reintroduced from scratch. That costs
time, a precious commodity that Israel
and pro-Israel groups say is dwindling
as Iran moves closer to acquiring a
nuclear bomb, perhaps early next year.
Spokesmen for Obama suggested
that Republicans opposed the legisla-
tion because it was authored in part by
the Democratic nominee for president.
Said Dan Shapiro, a senior Middle
East adviser to Obama: "We had a
chance to really toughen the sanc-
tions against Iran. That didn't happen
because it was blocked by the admin-
istration and Republican senators."
The bill, strongly supported by
the American Israel Public Affairs
Committee, consolidates two earlier
measures that had languished in the
Senate because of tactical obstructions
imposed by Republicans: one targets
Iran's banking system, bans U.S. deal-
ings with entities that deal with Iran's
energy sector and closes loopholes
that allow U.S. companies to deal with
Iran through foreign subsidiaries; the
other facilitates divestment from Iran
by naming companies that deal with
the Islamic Republic and providing
legal protection to entities that choose
to divest.
Obama authored the latter legisla-
tion; it's passage would have handed
him a major legislative victory at a
time when the McCain campaign is
trying to paint him as ineffectual in
Congress and soft on Iran.
Allard said at the time that he was
blocking the legislation because "the
Banking Committee is working on
new language." But the Senate Banking
Committee already had passed the
legislation, and it was sponsored by its
chairman, Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn.,
and its ranking member, Sen. Richard
Shelby, R-Ala. Allard's spokesmen
did not return requests for comment;
nor did the campaign for Sen. John
McCain, R-Ariz., the Republican presi-
dential candidate; nor the Republican
Jewish Coalition.
On earlier occasions, spokesmen
for the McCain campaign said Obama
was not serious about the legislation
because he did not convene hearings
on the matter in the subcommittee on
European affairs that he chairs.
Yet, generally, in the Senate, once
legislation passes muster with the most
relevant committee — in this case, the
banking committee — the only reason
for a senator to convene hearings in
another committee would be to slow it
down. Obama would have no reason to
obstruct his own legislation.
Both components of the legislation
passed handily in the U.S. House of
Representatives last year as separate
bills — as did Dodd's most recent
consolidated bill, sponsored in the
lower chamber by Rep. Howard
Berman, D-Calif., the chairman of the
House Foreign Affairs Committee.
The White House strongly opposed
both bills, partly because the legisla-
tion would have encroached on the
president's foreign policy prerogative
and partly because it would have
inhibited sensitive negotiations under
way with European allies to present a
united front on sanctions. 0