AFP, Washington, March 22, 2010 – The US Congress will soon take ’final action’ to approve tough new sanctions on Iran over its refusal to freeze its suspect nuclear weapon, a top Democratic lawmaker said Monday.
’We can’t expect a change of heart from a regime founded in violence, and in violent disregard for world opinion — but we can demand a change of behavior,’ House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told the potent AIPAC pro-Israel lobby group.
’So Congress will soon take final action on sanctions to target the Iranian economy at its weakest point, the refined petroleum it depends on,’ Hoyer said in a speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
Because of a lack of domestic refining capacity, oil-rich Iran is dependent on gasoline imports to meet about 40 percent of domestic consumption.
The House and Senate have been working to reconcile rival versions of legislation aimed at that vulnerability, producing one compromise version both chambers would approve and send to Obama to sign into law.
’These sanctions will demonstrate the high cost of Iran’s self-imposed isolation from the community of nations,’ said Hoyer, who vowed he would not leave Israel’s security ’hanging on a button in a bunker under Tehran.’
Iran denies Western charges that its atomic program hides a quest for nuclear weapons, and is under several rounds of UN sanctions for refusing to halt uranium enrichment.
The top two Republicans in the House of Representatives also pressed for tough new sanctions on Iran and urged the White House to defuse a feud with Israel over settlements in order to focus on the threat from Tehran.
’The administration can and should move forward to impose meaningful and targeted sanctions now and urge all nations to follow suit,’ Republican House Minority Leader John Boehner said in a statement.
Boehner lamented ’a predictable pattern’ in Obama’s diplomacy of ’concessions to countries acting contrary to US national interests’ while it ’ignores or snubs’ key allies, citing the Israeli settlement dispute.
The number two House Republican, Representative Eric Cantor, told AIPAC that ’Iran must be dealt with firmly, with real sanctions that have real teeth’ in order to make clear that ’our willingness to use force is on the table.’
’The message should be clear: If you deal with Iran, you are not welcome to deal with the US,’ said Cantor, the only Jewish House Republican.
’We are in a critical time. Now is not the time to be picking fights with Israel in what seems to be an attempt to curry favor with the Arab world. Now is the time when the US must stand with Israel in the global struggle against the threats posed by radical Islam,’ said Cantor.