US bill authorizing measures against firms trading in Iran advances

In a bi-partisan vote, the Foreign Affairs Committee of the US House of Representatives has approved a bill which would give President Obama powers to take action against foreign companies that sell refined petroleum to Iran. Even though Iran is a leading crude oil producer, it lacks refineries and needs to import two fifths of its gas. Britain, France, Switzerland and India are, among others, exporters of refined petroleum products to the Islamic Republic. Three quarters of House members have co-sponsored the legislation. To become law, the bill still has to win the endorsement of the full House and the Senate.

However, some observers in Washington believe that the measure could undermine the Obama administration’s efforts to negotiate with Iran over its nuclear program. A spokesman for the State Department said: "We prefer [the sanctions to] be done in a multilateral fashion,” including other states. It was also pointed out that about US$ 2.8 billion worth of gasoline passes through the United Arab Emirates to Iran each year, amounting to 75 percent of Iran’s refined fuel imports. The UAE’s role as a transit hub and the willingness of China and private shipping companies to supply gas to Iran showed the difficulty of getting such measures to be effective, observers said.

Meanwhile, the Russian government said that new Iran sanctions were highly unlikely in the near future. Sergei Prikhodko, a foreign policy adviser to President, told journalists in Moscow that "Sanctions rarely result in the necessary result, but in some cases the use of sanctions is inevitable. This formula remains in force."