Dear Friends,
The Nuclear Iran Prevention Act of 2013 (H.R. 850) significantly expands U.S. efforts to impose sanctions on the Islamic Republic including, for the first time, specifically authorizing the president to impose sanctions on any entity that maintains significant commercial ties to Iran. The legislation is authored by House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-CA) and Ranking Member Eliot Engel (D-NY). View bill text and current cosponsors
Sample Phone Script:
“I am calling the Representative to urge him/ her to cosponsor The Nuclear Iran Prevention Act of 2013 (H.R. 850). This legislation seeks to expand U.S. efforts to impose sanctions on the Islamic Republic. As talks with Iran continue, it is critical that more crippling sanctions be imposed on the regime in an effort to persuade Iran to abandon its uranium enrichment program.”
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Background
In spite of the resumption of talks with Iran to persuade the regime to abandon its uranium enrichment program, the regime continues to make advancements. Iran continues to enrich uranium in defiance of mandatory UN Security Council resolutions, and now is installing advanced centrifuges that enrich uranium four times faster than existing centrifuges, bringing Iran much closer to a breakout capability. As Iran continues to advance its enrichment program, it is critical the U.S. strengthen the enforcement of current sanctions and impose new and more crippling measures.
Key Provisions of the Nuclear Iran Prevention Act
Trade Sanctions
Grants the president specific authorization to bar any company or individual from doing business in the United States if that person knowingly conducts or facilitates a significant financial transaction with Iran via the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) or other sanctioned Iranian banks
Expands the penalties the president may impose on foreign financial institutions that conduct significant transactions with the CBI to include the freezing of assets and the imposition of significant fines
Closes a loophole in existing law that allows countries to carry out virtually unlimited non-oil trade with Iran via the CBI so long as they significantly reduced purchases of Iranian oil
Requires countries to significantly reduce overall imports from Iran, imports of Iranian oil and exports to Iran before qualifying for a 180 day exemption from sanctions targeting the CBI
Maintains current exemptions for the sale of food and medicine to Iran
Human Rights
Finds that the supreme leader of Iran, the president of Iran and many other senior government officials are responsible for serious human rights abuses and calls on the president to designate and sanction these individuals
Imposes sanctions on financial institutions that facilitate significant transactions for entities that violate the human rights of Iranian citizens or provide Tehran the means to carry out such violations
Reports
Requires the president to report frequently on the status of Iran’s nuclear program, the implementation of sanctions and the impact sanctions are having
Requires the president to develop a “national strategy on Iran” to be reported annually to Congress providing strategic guidance and an implementation plan to counter Iranian threat