TEHRAN Iran reacted angrily on Thursday to the overwhelming approval of harsh legislation on sanctions by the House of Representatives, saying the action would further complicate stalled negotiations aimed at resolving the protracted dispute over the Iranian nuclear energy program.A Foreign Ministry spokesman said passage of the measure on Wednesday evening, four days before the inauguration of a new Iranian president who has expressed his intent to improve relations with the United States, simply indicates that neoconservative unilateralism dominates multilateral sovereignty in the American administration.
The House measure,the Nuclear Iran Prevention Act, passed by a 400-to-20 vote. It reflects antipathy in both parties for Irans leaders after three decades of estrangement, a reluctance by many politicians to be seen as soft on Iran policy and a belief that severe economic pressure will force the Iranian government to compromise on the nuclear dispute. Supporters of the legislation rejected calls for caution and restraint by critics, including longtime Iran policy experts, who said the timing of the vote would send the wrong message just asIrans moderate president-elect, Hassan Rouhani, is about to take office. The legislation now goes to the Senate, where a similar bill is under consideration.
Iran has shown absolutely zero desire to put a break on the nuclear program, and we think these sanctions will have the effect of forcing Iran to sit at the negotiating table, Representative Eliot L. Engel, Democrat of New York, who co-sponsored the legislation, said in a telephone interview.
Dismissing the argument that the votes timing had been a mistake, Mr. Engel said: I dont think our sanctions need to go on the political clock. I think we have to go on the Iranian nuclear clock. Iranian leaders have repeatedly said that sanctions will not impede their uranium enrichment program, which they contend is legal and peaceful. The United States, Israel and many other countries suspect that the program is also a covert plan to achieve nuclear weapons ability. President Obama has said he will not countenance a nuclear-armed Iran.
While the Iranian response to the House legislation was not unexpected, it was issued with unusual speed.
This measure has been taken without paying attention to the political development and the use of experts, and is a blatant example of unjust measures in an unjust time, the Foreign Ministry spokesman, Abbas Araqchi, said in remarks reported by the semiofficial Fars News Agency.
The politics of sanctions is a defeated politics and under the current circumstances will only lead to further complications and will make it harder to find solutions, especially in the nuclear issues, he said.
The House measure, which goes far beyond the severity of other sanctions imposed on Iran, is intended to paralyze its oil exports by coercing customers to find other suppliers or risk severe penalties in business dealings with the United States.
The measure also would prevent Iran from accessing its foreign bank accounts and would greatly expand the scope of Iranian industries on a sanctions blacklist, which could force Irans other trading partners to shun it or risk American penalties.
Advocates of sanctions on Iran welcomed the measure.
If passed into law, this legislation would impose a de facto international blockade on Irans oil exports and put unprecedented pressure on the Iranian regime, Mark D. Wallace, the chief executive of United Against Nuclear Iran, a New York-based group that has pushed for such a strategy, said in astatement.
Opponents of sanctions said the severity and timing of the House measure would be regarded in Iran as the type of threat that would embolden hard-line conservatives, subverting any opportunity for Mr. Rouhani to achieve a diplomatic solution.
Trita Parsi, the president of the National Iranian American Council, a Washington-based group that opposes sanctions, noted that 131 House members hadsigned a letterto Mr. Obama less than two weeks ago in which they urged him to engage Mr. Rouhani and avoid actions that could undermine him.
The support for new diplomacy with Iran within Congress is clear, even among many who ultimately voted for these new misguided sanctions, Mr. Parsi said in astatement. But as we saw with Iraq, sanctions are often the pathway to war, and Congressional leadership must change course soon in order for diplomacy to succeed.
Thomas Erdbrink reported from Tehran, and Rick Gladstone from New York.
By New York Times
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