A Democratic senator who voted for the Iran deal said Thursday that it is not America’s responsibility to promote foreign investment in Iran, despite efforts by Secretary of State John Kerry to encourage investment there.
“It is Iran’s challenge to demonstrate that their economy is transparent enough, legitimate enough, secure enough, to attract foreign investment,” Delaware senator Chris Coons told THE WEEKLY STANDARD after an event at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington. “I don’t think it’s our job to act as the chamber of commerce for Tehran.”
Coons, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations committee, rejected Iranian complaints that the U.S. was not living up to its end of the Iran deal because it was not helping Iran gain access to the international financial system.
“The United States has upheld our end of the bargain. We have not prevented Iran from receiving economic benefits associated with the deal,” he said in his remarks to the CFR.
Iran’s criticism spurred the Obama administration to consider ways to grant the Islamic Republic limited access to the U.S. dollar and to explain to reluctant foreign companies how to do business there. Kerry led the way on the latter front, telling reporters in May that companies “should not use the United States as an excuse” to not do business in Iran.
“European banks, as long as it’s not a designated entity, are absolutely free to open accounts for Iran, trade, exchange money, facilitate a legitimate business agreement, bankroll it, lend money—all of those things are absolutely open, permissible,” he said.
But Coons, while not referring explicitly to the Obama administration’s efforts, objected to gratifying Iran’s complaints.
“I am concerned that by entertaining Iranian complaints of inadequate sanctions relief, we risk giving these claims legitimacy,” he said. “If Iran is unhappy with the level of economic benefits it has received since the [Iran deal], it has only itself and its own actions to blame.”
He did, however, express support for the administration’s attempts to explain American sanctions so that foreign banks didn’t stumble into them unwittingly.
Source: Weekly Standard, 23 June 2016
