FDD Applauds Congress and Treasury for New Iran Sanctions

PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Washington, DC (FDD, September 24, 2012) – On the eve of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s appearance at the United Nations General Assembly, the United States Congress and Department of the Treasury have made the timely decision that Iran’s national oil company is an agent of the country’s most ruthless military branch.

FDD congratulates Treasury and Congress for their leadership in determining that the National Iranian Oil Company is inseparable from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the group responsible for the country’s illicit nuclear activities, brutal repression of domestic political opponents, and acts of terrorism abroad.

FDD congratulates Congressman Howard Berman (D-CA), and Senators Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Mark Kirk (R-IL), for their tireless leadership in requiring the Treasury determination under a provision of the recently-passed Iran Threat Reduction and Syria Human Rights Act of 2012. FDD also applauds Treasury’s Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Team for their work in making this important determination.

“This finding by Treasury is further proof of the Guards’ dominance in Iran’s energy sector,” said Mark Dubowitz, FDD’s executive director, and an Iran sanctions expert. “FDD has long urged this determination, and in March 2011, and again in March 2012, it submitted confidential reports to Treasury and select members of Congress detailing the extensive links between NIOC and the IRGC. We urge the U.S. government to continue its investigation into the possible links between the IRGC and NITC, a key player in Iran’s petroleum supply chain.”

“NIOC is the lynchpin of the Iranian energy sector and has operated as the ultimate front company in trying to obscure the role of the IRGC in Iran’s petroleum sector. As a result of this Treasury decision,” Dubowitz continued, “foreign companies will be more reluctant to buy, finance and insure Iranian petroleum shipments, participate in joint ventures, real estate and banking transactions with NIOC, or engage in the sale to, or purchase from, NIOC of foreign products and services. U.S. law now makes it explicitly clear that NIOC’s business partners are doing direct business with the world’s most dangerous terrorist organization and nuclear proliferator. This will accelerate the decline of Iranian petroleum exports and production.”

To discuss U.S. policy toward Iran, or arrange interviews with any of its scholars, please contact David Donadio at [email protected]. Mark Dubowitz, FDD’s Executive Director, and Iran sanctions expert; Reuel Marc Gerecht, an FDD senior fellow and former CIA Middle East operative; John Hannah, an FDD senior fellow and former national security advisor to Vice President Richard B. Cheney; Jonathan Schanzer, FDD’s Vice President of Research and former U.S Treasury counterterrorism intelligence analyst; and Claudia Rosett, FDD’s journalist-in-residence and a former Wall Street Journal reporter, are all available for comment.

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The Foundation for Defense of Democracies is a Washington-based non-profit, non-partisan policy institute dedicated exclusively to promoting pluralism, defending democratic values, and fighting the ideologies that drive terrorism.