Jewish Groups Press for Iran Sanctions.....(Forward) 9/33
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- Date: 30 Sep 2005 07:37:38 -0700
News
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."
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