News / Nuclear Energy

US lawmakers introduce resolution against new Iran sanctions

Tuesday, 27 January 2015 3:02 AM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 27 January 2015 3:02 AM ]

US Sen. Dianne Feinstein (AFP)

A group of US senators have introduced a resolution against imposing more sanctions on Iran over Tehran’s nuclear program amid talks between the Islamic Republic and the P5+1 group.

The resolution was presented on Monday by 10 Democratic senators and an independent, who caucuses with Democrats, Reuters reported.

“Enacting new sanctions before the end of the negotiating period would gravely undermine our efforts to reach an agreement with Iran,” said Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein, a leading co-sponsor of the resolution along with Senator Chris Murphy.

Democratic Senators Tom Carper, Dick Durbin, Al Franken, Martin Heinrich, Patrick Leahy, Jeff Merkley, John Tester, and Sheldon Whitehouse, as well as Senator Angus King, an independent, are the resolution's other co-sponsors.

The US Senate Banking Committee is set to vote Thursday on another bill, introduced by Senator Mark Kirk and Senator Robert Menendez, that aims at toughening sanctions against Iran should nuclear talks fail.

The Kirk-Menendez bill was introduced in December 2013, when President Barack Obama's fellow democrats were in power in the Senate.

The legislation did not come up for vote at the time as the White House insisted that the bill could spoil talks on Iran's nuclear program.

Obama has called on the new Republican-controlled Congress not to impose more sanctions on Iran, saying he would veto such a measure.

Iran’s parliament (Majlis), for its part, is working on a motion under which the government would be obliged to step up uranium enrichment utilizing new-generation centrifuges.

According to spokesman for the National Security and Foreign Policy Committee of Iran’s Majlis, Seyyed Hossein Naqavi Hosseini, the move is in reaction to US lawmakers’ plans for more sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

Iran and the P5+1 (China, Russia, France, Britain, and the US – plus Germany) have been holding talks to secure a final comprehensive deal over Iranian nuclear work.

Since an interim deal was agreed in Geneva in November 2013, the negotiating sides have missed two self-imposed deadlines to ink a final agreement.

Iran and the P5+1 countries now seek to reach a high-level political agreement by March 1 and to confirm the full technical details of the accord by July 1.

MR/NT

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