Senators say Iran trade sanctions working to reduce terror and nuclear activities

Sens. Lieberman (I-CT), Collins (R-ME)

The leaders of the Senate Homeland Security Committee welcomed news from the GAO that trade sanctions against Iran seem to be working to limit that country’s ability to support nuclear and terror activities.

Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman (I-CT), ranking member Susan Collins (R-ME) and Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) hailed a new report issued by the Government Accountability Office on Feb. 1, which they said showed progress in isolating Iran through trade sanctions.

The GAO report was commissioned by Lieberman and Collins.

The report, said a statement from the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, looked to assess the impact of the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act (CISADA) of 2010 on the ability of Iran to purchase refined petroleum products that could aid its nuclear activities, support for terrorism, and human rights abuses. They said the open-sourced GAO report found a sharp reduction in the number of companies that are publicly reported to be selling gasoline and other refined petroleum products to Iran since CISADA was enacted. Three Chinese firms and one Venezuela company continue to trade such products with Iran, however.

The GAO report said since the fall of 2010, the U.S. State Departmetn has sanctioned 13 foreign firms under the act  --  two for investments in Iran’s energy sector and 11 for supplying refined petroleum products.

It said the State Department imposed various sanctions on each firm, listed 10 on a list that makes them ineligible to receive U.S. government contracts, and was in the process of listing the remaining three firms on the same list at the time of this report.

The report found that 16 firms reported selling refined petroleum products to Iran from January 1, 2009, to June 30, 2010, but only four sold these products between July 2010 and December 2011. According to Petroleum Intelligence Weekly, it said, Iran imported about 130,000 barrels of gasoline per day in 2009; 78,000 barrels a day in 2010; and 50,000 barrels per day by July 2011.

"We are encouraged that the sanctions legislation passed by Congress two years ago has had a demonstrable impact in reducing the number of firms reported to be selling refined petroleum products to Iran,” said the senators in a joint statement. “At the same time, we are deeply concerned that companies in one particular country – namely, China -- now appear to dominate this trade. This must stop,” they said. “We urge the Obama Administration to apply sanctions against those remaining companies -- whether in China or anywhere else in the world -- that continue to provide a lifeline to Iran," they added.