Obama Administration Urges States to Lift Sanctions on Iran

After lifting international and federal sanctions related to Iran's nuclear program, the Barack Obama administration is turning its attention to state governments.

On April 8, the State Department's lead coordinator for Iran nuclear implementation, Stephen Mull, sent letters to the governors of all 50 states as well as some local officials. He asked them to reconsider any laws on the books that called for divesting state funds, such as pensions, from businesses interacting with Iran's economy, or laws that would deny contracts to companies that do business with Iran.

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“These state laws are an essential part of the non-nuclear sanctions architecture designed to both deter Iranian illicit behavior and to safeguard pension funds from the risk associated with entering Iran's economy,” Mark Dubowitz, executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, and a leading expert in Washington on Iranian sanctions, told me.

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