The chairman of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee said on Tuesday he will introduce legislation that levies sanctions on companies and financial institutions that help supply Iran with gasoline if Tehran does not come clean on its nuclear program.
Senator Christopher Dodd said his bill, which he plans to discuss at an October 6 hearing, will put pressure on Tehran as it begins talks with the United States this week about Iran's nuclear program.
Last week, Iran admitted to building a secret uranium enrichment facility and on Monday it announced it had test-fired missiles that could reach Israel, parts of Europe and U.S. bases in the Mideast Gulf.
"Congress must equip President Obama with a full range of tools to deal with the threats posed by Iran," Dodd said on the Senate floor.
The senator said his legislation will give the Obama administration "the ability to impose tough, targeted sanctions if Iran does not respond to our final diplomatic effort in the coming weeks."
Specifically, Dodd's bill would:
* Expand the Iran Sanctions Act to cover a range of financial institutions and businesses and extend sanctions to oil and gas pipelines and tankers;
* Impose new sanctions on entities involved in exporting certain refined petroleum products to Iran or building Iran's domestic refining capacity;
* Impose a broad ban on direct imports from Iran to the U.S. and exports from the U.S. to Iran, exempting food and medicines;
* Strengthen the administration's ability to freeze the assets of Iranians active in weapons proliferation or terrorism;
* Require the president to determine and report to Congress if investments in Iran's energy sector are eligible for sanctions;
* Enable Americans to divest from energy firms doing business with the Iranian regime;
* Strengthen export controls to stop the illegal export of sensitive technology to countries like Iran, and impose tough new licensing requirements on those who refuse to cooperate.
Dodd is one of many U.S. lawmakers who want to go after Iran because of its nuclear program.
"We have a responsibility to provide the administration the tools it needs to maximize pressure on this increasingly intransigent regime," Bob Casey, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Near Eastern and South and Central Asian Affairs, said on Tuesday,
"Let's pass divestment and petroleum sanctions and send a message to this regime and the international community that a nuclear-armed Iran is unacceptable," he added.
The chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee is also planning to hold a vote next month on his separate bill to punish companies that export gasoline to Iran.
Iran has some of the world's biggest oil reserves, but it imports 40 percent of its gasoline to meet growing domestic demand because of a lack of refining capacity.
