Jewish Groups Press for Iran Sanctions
- From: "DrEvil" <drevil@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 29 Sep 2005 09:46:25 +0800
Jewish Groups Press for Iran Sanctions
By Ori Nir
September 23, 2005
WASHINGTON -As Washington struggles to secure world support for slapping
international sanctions on Iran over its alleged pursuit of nuclear weapons,
Jewish organization are stepping up their efforts to trigger a crackdown on
Tehran.
Pro-Israel activists in Washington are pressing Congress to tighten American
sanctions on Iran. And last week, on the margins of the United Nations
General Assembly, Jewish communal leaders in New York urged world leaders,
including Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, to act against Tehran.
The appeal to Singh - to support American and European efforts to bring the
issue of anti-Iran sanctions before the United Nations Security Council -
came after a meeting earlier this month between Jewish communal leaders and
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. At the meeting, Rice expressed
frustration with India's refusal to support American and European policy on
Iran.
Washington is trying to convince India, as well as Russia and China, to join
in adopting an international hard line against Iran's nuclear ambitions.
Sources told the Forward that the Jewish activists who met with Rice took
her comments as a plea to use their influence with India's government and
urge it to cooperate with the Bush administration.
The assistant national director of the Anti-Defamation League, Kenneth
Jacobson, who attended the powwow with Singh, reported that the result of
the meeting with the Indian leader was disappointing.
Singh "expressed a reluctance to rush towards the Security Council,"
Jacobson told the Forward. "We were left feeling that there was a long way
to go before getting his government to be willing to support" referring
Iran's nuclear program to the Security Council.
Jewish communal leaders reported similar disappointment with Russia's
foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov. "We weren't very happy with him either,"
Jacobson said. "He didn't give us any indication that Russia was going to
support" a Security Council resolution for Iran's nuclear program.
Other meetings that Jewish communal leaders had in New York last week with
foreign leaders also focused on Iran's nuclear ambitions and on the
prospects of reining them in through international sanctions.
In his speech before the U.N. General Assembly, Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad reportedly called for the creation of a committee to investigate
Israel's nuclear activities. He unequivocally affirmed his country's
intention to continue enriching unranium - over American and European
objections - although he said the nuclear fuel is being produced for
peaceful purposes, not to make a bomb.
The Iranian leader made the statements after effectively breaking off
negotiations with European Union representatives aimed at resolving the
international crisis over Tehran's nuclear program.
A referral to the Security Council requires a consensus among board members
of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Currently such a consensus does
not exist. Russia, China, Brazil and the agency's director general, Mohamed
ElBaradei, all oppose an immediate referral of the Iranian case to the
Security Council. The agency's board of governors is composed of 35 member
states, with 14 belonging to the Non-Aligned Movement. These representatives
met this week to adopt a collective position. According to reports from the
agency's headquarters in Vienna, 12 out of the 14 nonaligned countries
opposed the referral.
The Bush administration and its European allies are rushing to secure an
early referral before this month's election of the organization's next
board. The election is expected to result in the inclusion of even more
nonaligned states.
"We think time is running out," Jacobson said. "We think there is a certain
never-never-land quality to all of this. We will wake up one day, and we
will find that we're stuck" with a nuclear Iran.
Meanwhile, pro-Israel lobbyists on Capitol Hill are cajoling members of
Congress to support the Iran Freedom Support Act, which would expand the
existing American sanctions on companies that invest more than $20 annually
in Iran's oil and gas sectors. The bill would tighten sanctions on companies
that invest in Iran's energy industry in the hopes of blocking money that
could be used to produce nuclear arms.
The bill also provides for assistance to pro-democracy forces within Iran,
and funding for independent media broadcasts to the country. The House of
Representatives' Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Florida Republican, and Howard
Berman, a California Democrat, are sponsoring the proposed legislation. The
sponsors of the Senate version are Rick Santorum, a Pennsylvania Republican,
and Evan Bayh, an Indiana Democrat.
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, Washington's pro-Israel lobby,
has made pushing for sanctions on Iran its number-one priority in recent
months.
"Iran is rapidly approaching the point of no return, and in order to prevent
it from acquiring nuclear weapons, concerted diplomatic and economic
pressure must be imposed," Aipac spokesman Josh Block said. "Stopping Iran
from acquiring a nuclear weapon should be a priority for anyone who is
concerned about stability in the Middle East."
http://www.forward.com/main/printer-friendly.php?id=4004
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