US senators seek softer tone on Iran

The US senators, who proposed tougher sanction against Iran earlier this year, seem to have taken a softer tone in the new amendment they have presented.

Although the amendment still calls for more sanctions against Iran in the event of talks failing, it moves away from allegations that Tehran’s civilian nuclear program is gearing up to for militarization.

A bipartisan group has introduced the Senate Iran sanctions amendment to the defense authorization bill. The revision is seen as a watered down version of the Iran refined petroleum act of 2009, brought forward by the same group of senators in April.

“It represents a remarkable move towards the Obama administration’s position,” said Jim Fine, Legislative Secretary for Foreign Policy at an American lobby called Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL).

“Because it speaks not of an Iranian nuclear weapons program which those folks have been emphasizing it speaks instead of a much softer illicit nuclear activities,” he told Press TV’s Washington correspondent Jihan Hafez.

However, the new amendment does give the Islamic Republic an ultimatum to negotiate with the P5+1 (Permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany) about its nuclear activities or prepare for a new round of financial sanctions by the end of September.

“President Obama has won the day in arguing for engagement on the other hand of course it makes clear that if there is no response at all from the Iranians it’s going be very hard for the president to maintain a policy unilaterally,” said Fine.

Some political analysts in Washington say targeting Iran’s financial institutions through an amendment that includes less hostile language is a policy the pro-Israel lobby has been pushing on Capitol Hill for a long time.

“It’s another demonstration of the power of the Israeli lobby to bring things to the Hill… I suspect that this has also been written by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and other people some of whom were meeting with the president last Monday,” said Eugene Byrd, of the Council for the National Interest.

In the past, it has been common for AIPAC to influence foreign policy through lobbying top lawmakers and insisting on key legislation related to their cause.

While it has yet to be seen if the new amendment proposed by the bipartisan group of senators was prepared by the lobby, the AIPAC website encourages its supporters to pressure their elected officials on the Iran legislation.

If the amendment garners enough support on Capitol Hill it will be inserted in the defense authorization bill, giving President Obama the option to impose tougher sanction on Iran if the P5+1 talks fail to produce Washington’s desired results by the end of September.