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Obama and Kerry Slowing Sanctions Legislation Push

(JTA) Ron Kampeas - Unilateral U.S. sanctions against Iran are on track, Senate officials say, but taking the slow train. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, needs time to consider the bill, his spokesman, Frederick Jones, told JTA. That means it's extremely unlikely the Senate will rush the legislation before year's end. The go-slow approach takes some wind out of the version of the bill, the Iran Refined Petroleum Sanctions Act, that passed Tuesday in the U.S. House of Representatives. The Obama administration wants to slow down the prospect of unilateral sanctions while it attempts to mass international support for multilateral measures aimed at forcing Iran to make its nuclear workings transparent. Top administration officials have made clear in recent days that they are apprehensive of scaring away potential partners in multilateral sanctions with the threat of punitive sanctions. One official of a pro-Israel group pushing hard for the legislation cautioned that the bottom line of the White House backing sanctions, now or in the near future, was good news. That Obama wanted tweaks to the legislation was to be expected, the official said.
2009-12-18 08:08:26
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