US House passes gasoline sanctions bill against Iran

In an effort to force Iran to freeze its nuclear programme, the US House of Representatives on Tuesday passed a resolution which empowers President Barack Obama to impose new sanctions on foreign companies supplying gasoline to the Islamic Republic. A similar bill is pending before the Senate, which is likely to follow suit.

The House measure came even as the Obama administration announced that it is investigating public reports on issues related to Iran's nuclear programme.

"There has been a public report about an issue related to Iran's nuclear programme. The United States Government will be investigating those reports," Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs PJ Crowley said. The Iran Refined Petroleum Products Sanctions Act was passed by the House by a vote of 412 to 12.

"The prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran is the most serious and urgent strategic challenge faced by the United States, and we must use all of the diplomatic means at our disposal including tougher sanctions to prevent that from becoming a reality," said Howard Berman, Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Berman is the co-author of the House legislation (H R 2194) which has 343 co-sponsors.

The legislation sanctions foreign companies that sell refined petroleum to Iran with its own domestic refining capacity, by depriving those companies of access to the US market.

House of Representative Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Iran must take the necessary steps to demonstrate its willingness to live as a peaceful partner in the international community. "And we must use all of the tools at our disposal from diplomacy to sanctions to stop Iran's march toward nuclear capability," she said.

"Today, with this legislation, we give the President a new option, a new tool the power to impose sanctions against companies that supply Iran with, or support its domestic production of gasoline and other refined petroleum products," Pelosi said.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said even though it is an oil producer, Iran imports a great deal of the refined petroleum that powers its economy, so these sanctions will increase the high cost of Iran s self-imposed isolation from the international community.

"They are also a proportional response, because they are exclusively tied to Iran's nuclear programme," he said. "Every Member in this chamber understands the deep danger inherent in a nuclear Iran. That danger includes a new nuclear arms race, as Iran's regional rivals scramble to build competing arsenals, plunging the Middle East into an even greater instability and the world into a new era of proliferation," he said.