[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 12703]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        IRAN'S GASOLINE IMPORTS

  (Mr. KIRK asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. KIRK. Madam Speaker, 3 years ago, a Congressman, Rob Andrews, and 
I founded the Iran Working Group to explore all peaceful options with 
regard to the nuclear crisis.
  Last June, we proposed a unique option, an international quarantine 
on the sale of gasoline to Iran. Despite its status as an OPEC oil 
producer, Iran depends on over 40 percent of its gasoline supply from 
abroad, and because the mullahs failed to modernize Iran's refineries, 
she has run short.
  Iran's government knows of this critical weakness. They have reviewed 
the congressional resolution and calls for restricting gas sales to 
Iran.
  To prepare their people, the Iranian government decided this week to 
cut in half their gasoline subsidy for foreign supplies, effectively 
eliminating almost 200,000 barrels a day from their national supply. 
This will trigger gasoline rationing in Tehran and will begin to 
tighten the squeeze on the government.
  It shows that this is a very powerful lever to use in the peaceful 
resolution of this crisis and one that Iran's leaders already know 
would be effective.

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