[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 192 (Wednesday, December 14, 2011)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2256-E2257]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   IRAN THREAT REDUCTION ACT OF 2011

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                          HON. JAMES P. MORAN

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, December 13, 2011

  Mr. MORAN. Mr. Speaker, in June 2010 President Obama signed into law 
the most far-reaching and carefully targeted sanctions ever imposed on 
Iran. Later that same month, the Administration also succeeded in 
bringing the United Nations Security Council to issue further, 
multilateral sanctions. In May, the United Nations issued a report 
demonstrating that these multilateral sanctions were having a serious, 
deleterious impact on Iran's ability to pursue nuclear weapons.
  The reason these sanctions are having such an impact is that they 
have garnered the cooperation of allies around the world, who saw that 
this Administration was willing to engage Iran. If those allies now 
deem that we are turning back from that posture of engagement, and 
returning to the unilateralism of the Bush Administration, I am 
concerned that our effort to isolate the Iranian regime will collapse. 
It is the comprehensive diplomacy of the Obama Administration that has 
unified our European allies and brought them on board. That could end.
  And in addition, the sanctions called for by H.R. 1905, are less 
targeted and more indiscriminate. They will have an impact, but that 
impact will not be directly related to our justified concern over human 
rights or Iran's nuclear military goals. Rather, they would hurt 
Iranians of all walks of life, including those we hope will become an 
effective opposition to

[[Page E2257]]

the current leadership. The recent IAEA report shows that Iran is not 
complying with its obligations under the treaty. We urgently need to 
keep a united front on the goal of preventing Iran from advancing its 
nuclear military capability. These sanctions could undermine that 
effort.
  This bill is the wrong move for the global economy as well. In the 
middle of a very fragile economic recovery, these new sanctions could 
wreak havoc in the world oil market, right in the middle of winter, a 
time of our highest consumption. Already, we see oil prices rising. 
According to the Wall Street Journal, new sanctions could increase the 
price of oil by up to $1 per gallon. That would be terrible for U.S. 
consumers, businesses and the economy. But it would be very good for 
Iran's leaders.
  In fact, the sanctions would do more to help Iran's Supreme Leader 
and President than hurt them. Last week, the fierce competition between 
President Ahmadinejad and Ayatollah Khamenei was threatening to boil 
over when an embezzlement scandal roiled the Iranian leadership. The 
Washington Post reported this week that President Ahmadinejad admitted 
that the country is having a hard team with sanctions, and that now is 
not the time to shake things up in the government. In other words, 
external pressure unified rival factions, and helped the repressive 
regime to achieve a united front.
  These sanctions could also hurt Iranian Americans. Sanctions on 
Iran's Central Bank will make it hard for Iranian Americans to send 
money to relatives in Iran. That could mean that an Iranian living in 
the United States has no legal way of helping his parents or 
grandparents. It could force them to pursue unsafe and illegal channels 
to send legal remittances to family members. That would be a terrible 
injustice, and it would be bad for U.S. interests. The Iranian American 
community is our best way to reach out to people in Iran, and we should 
not be making it harder for them to do so.
  The sanctions could also hurt innocent Iranians in other ways. Aside 
from making it harder to import food and medicine, this bill bans the 
licensing of sales of spare parts for civilian airliners. Iran's 
airlines are already among the most dangerous in the world because of 
the difficulty in maintaining them under sanctions. Over 1,000 people 
have died in air crashes in the last ten years.
  Lastly, this bill is wrong because it would be an expression to the 
world that the United States is not interested in having a relationship 
with the people of Iran. As it stands now, we have very little 
understanding of what is really happening inside Iran. The Obama 
Administration has strengthened our capacity to know what is happening 
inside the country by adding to a network of diplomats in missions 
around the world focusing on developments in Iran.
  But we have a long way to go. Recently Admiral Mike Mullen said that 
this absence of contact is hurting us. At a Carnegie Endowment for 
International Peace event shortly before he retired, the Chairman of 
the Joint Chiefs of Staff said: ``Even in the darkest days of the Cold 
War, we had links to the Soviet Union. We are not talking to Iran, so 
we don't understand each other.''
  I agree with Admiral Mullen: we need more contact with Iran--about 
Afghanistan, the drug trade, and human rights--not less. Ambassador Tom 
Pickering, in a recent Newsweek essay, also criticized this bill 
because of the constitutional questions it raises about the separation 
of powers.
  CISADA sanctions and U.N. measures are having a serious effect, and 
intensifying rifts in Iran's leadership. This bill would close those 
rifts as Iran's leaders circle their wagons, and would give them an 
excuse as to why things are bad on the economic front. I can't support 
it as it is written.

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