DAR AL HARB - U.S.A.: "WE TALK TOUGH AND ACT LIKE PUSSYCATS"

Bush faces fresh criticism on Iran policy
By Guy Dinmore in Washington

Senators urged the Bush administration on Wednesday to get tougher with Iran but senior Treasury and State Department officials resisted demands to punish European and Asian companies investing in Iran’s energy sector.

”You’ve got to get a lot tougher,” declared Chris Dodd, Senate banking committee chairman, brandishing charts showing $126bn of foreign investment in Iranian oil and gas fields.

Senator Robert Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat, said: ”We talk tough and act like a pussycat.”

Nicholas Burns, under-secretary of state, and Stuart Levey, Treasury under-secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, replied that imposing US sanctions on foreign investors in Iran would damage the international coalition that the US was trying to keep together to isolate Iran over its nuclear programme.

The US wanted to put pressure on Iran, not its allies, Mr Burns said.

Mr Levey warned of a “backlash” against the US if it imposed sanctions on European or Japanese companies. This risked destroying US efforts to pass sanctions resolutions at the UN Security Council, he added.

He also noted that the extra-territorial application of US law was a controversial issue that would be met with hostility by allies.

Both the Bush and Clinton administrations have refrained from taking advantage of the Iran sanctions act to punish foreign firms.

But the two officials said the act was a useful deterrent and noted that China and Malaysia had not finalised recent deals with Iran. Senator Dodd retorted that the threat of sanctions was a “myth.”

Lawmakers also called for legislation that would plug loopholes that allow foreign subsidiaries of US companies, such as Halliburton, to continue doing business with Iran.


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1) Bush faces fresh criticism on Iran policy