A new hawkish bill against Iran is to drop Thursday in US Congress.<\/p>\n
A new bill seeking to authorize war with Iran, sponsored by a Republican member of the House of Representatives, is to drop in US Congress on Thursday while foreign policy observers on Capitol Hill have described it as œcounterproductive.”\n<\/p>\n
The bill, sponsored by Rep. Trent Franks (R-Arizona), has been shopped around to various House offices this week in search of a co-sponsor, Foreign Policy™s The Cable<\/i> reported on Tuesday.\n<\/p>\n
The bill seeks to provide US President Barack Obama with œall options” including the possibility of a US military strike against Iran in order to œmaximize the United States™ diplomatic influence” in negotiations over Iran™s nuclear energy program.\n<\/p>\n
The bill is set to arrive in US Congress less than a week before Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council – Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States – plus Germany hold talks in Geneva on October 15-16 over Iran™s nuclear energy program.\n<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, foreign policy observers have criticized the bill and say the chances of such a resolution being passed by US Congress are slim.\n<\/p>\n
œIt’s hard to imagine a more counterproductive effort to slow the development of Iran’s nuclear program,” a congressional aide told The Cable<\/i>.\n<\/p>\n
œThere™s simply no appetite in Congress for giving the President authority to launch strikes in Iran,” the congressional aide added.\n<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the US government shutdown, which has stretched into its second week, is hampering the enforcement of sanctions against Iran.\n<\/p>\n
Wendy Sherman, the undersecretary of State Department for political affairs, told senators last week to delay new anti-Iran sanctions legislation passed by the House in July, which sought to cut Iran™s oil exports by one million barrels a day for the next year and included threats of military force against Iran.\n<\/p>\n
œOur ability to enforce sanctions, to stop sanctions evaders, is being hampered significantly by the shutdown,” Sherman told a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing.\n<\/p>\n
Washington and some of its allies claim that Iran is pursuing non-civilian objectives in its nuclear energy program. The US and the European Union have used the unfounded allegation as a pretext to impose illegal sanctions on Iran.\n<\/p>\n
Tehran strongly rejects the allegation over its nuclear energy activities, maintaining that as a committed signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), it has the right to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.\n<\/p>\n
ISH\/ISH<\/p>\n<\/div>\n