Bipartisan sanctions introduced as Iran marks anniversary

Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), GOP Whip Jon Kyl (Ariz.), Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) introduced a two-part bill aimed at punishing Iran’s regime for brutal crackdowns on dissidents, political opponents and journalists.

“We Americans have an obligation to assist morally and materially that effort for freedom and democracy,” McCain said. “We are introducing legislation to further that cause.”

{mosads}The announcement came the same day Iran marked its 31st anniversary as an Islamic Republic and its leader announced the country had become a “nuclear state.”

The bill has two parts. First, it would require President Barack Obama to compile a public list of individuals in Iran who are responsible for human-rights violations against Iranian citizens and their families anywhere in the world. Second, the bill would block U.S. visas and freeze any U.S. assets belonging to those individuals.

“We will shine a light on Iran’s human-rights abusers and we will make them famous for their crimes,” McCain said.

The senators announced they had 10 co-sponsors, but Lieberman predicted “every” senator would eventually support the bill. Bayh also hailed the bipartisan nature of the bill.

“The American people are angry about Washington these days because of the perception that we can’t agree on anything,” Bayh said. “Today’s announcement stands in stark contrast to that. … It’s a very timely announcement today. People are being beaten in the streets as we speak, and their president announced today that they perhaps have taken major steps forward in becoming a nuclear power.”

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced Thursday that Iran was now a “nuclear state,” having just produced the first batch of the higher level of enriched uranium that he ordered from the country’s nuclear processing facilities over the weekend.

“I want to announce with a loud voice here that the first package of 20 percent fuel was produced and provided to the scientists,” Ahmadinejad told a crowd of hundreds of thousands of pro-government demonstrators in remarks carried on state-run TV.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs doubted those claims at Thursday’s briefing. “We do not believe they have the capability to enrich to the degree they say they are enriching,” he said.

Lieberman brought up fresh violence against Iranians before announcing the legislation in appearances on Fox News and MSNBC. He stressed the importance of the bill being the first to apply economic sanctions “on Iranian abusers of fellow Iranians.”

Opposition websites reported that the wife of Mir Hossein Mousavi, the leading opposition candidate in June presidential elections, had been beaten by police Thursday, and Mousavi was prevented from joining an opposition rally countering the large, government-led revolutionary demonstrations marking the 31st anniversary of the Islamic Revolution.

The cars of Iranian opposition leaders Mohammad Khatami and Mehdi Karroubi also came under attack by police, reported independent news websites, and a pro-reform granddaughter of the Islamic revolution founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini was briefly detained.

Lieberman said individuals targeted by the list — which would have to
be produced by the administration within 90 days — would be identified
through intelligence, information from allied countries, and with the
assistance of nongovernmental organizations.

“When you look at it, this regime in Tehran is unacceptable at its core because of the way it has increasingly denied its people human rights,” Lieberman said on Fox.

Last summer Obama took a hands-off approach to the demonstrations in Iran against Ahmadinejad, fearing that the U.S. would be accused of meddling. Other critics of U.S. involvement have voiced concern that sanctions could unite the Iranian people around their leadership.

McCain shot down those concerns Thursday, saying that strategy has not worked for almost a year and that Obama seems “much more interested” in engaging in Iran’s politics than before.

“It’s pretty obvious that the Iranians aren’t going to unclench their fists,” McCain said.

McCain also noted that he, Lieberman, Kyl and others were in Munich over the weekend for an international security conference, and listened to Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki deny there were any human-rights violations or nuclear ambitions.

“It would have been amusing if it hadn’t been so tragic in its consequences for the Iranian people,” McCain said.

The White House said Thursday that it was closely watching the crackdown associated with the Islamic Revolution anniversary protests.

“We continue to monitor events as they happen and try to get the best available information, understanding that a lot of media, Google and other services, have been basically unplugged,” Gibbs told reporters when asked about the fresh reports of violence.

“We stand by the universal rights of Iranians to express themselves freely,” Gibbs said, adding “we will continue to express our condemnation and dismay” at any violence.

(Photo by Chris Gregory)