Iran V: Sanctions
March 13, 2012
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Executive Order, a ban was imposed on US imports of Iranian crude oil and all other Iranian imports in 1987.47 The Iran-Iraq Arms Non-Proliferation Act was signed into law under President H.W. Bush. It included provisions regarding dual-use items with potential military purposes and called for the sanctioning of any person or entity that assisted Tehran in weapons development or acquisition of chemical, biological, nuclear, or destabilizing numbers and types of advanced conventional weapons.48 Unilateral sanctions against Iran expanded further under the Clinton administration. Executive Order 12957 banned all U.S. participation in the development of petroleum in Iran, 49 Executive Order 12959 broadened the sanctions to encompass a total trade and investment embargo, 50 and the Congress overwhelmingly passed the Iran and Libya Sanctions Act (ILSA), expanding US sanctions legislation to cover foreign companies.51 The ILSA received an extension during the George W. Bush Administration in 2001 and again in 2006 when it was renamed the Iran Sanctions Act.52 Executive Order 13382 was issued, which intended to freeze the assets of proliferators of WMD and their supporters and isolate them financially—eight Iranian entities and external organizations that were believed to be supporting Iranian WMD programs were sanctioned. 53 In 2006, Congress passed the Iran, North Korea, and Syria Nonproliferation Act (INKSNA), which provided penalties for the transfer to, or acquisition from Iran, of equipment and technology controlled under multilateral control lists (the Missile Technology Control Regime, Australia Group, Chemical Weapons Convention, Nuclear Suppliers Group, Wassenaar Arrangement).54 Sanctions Since 2010 As Iran’s nuclear program has grown closer and closer to giving Iran actual nuclear weapons production capability, the Obama Administration and the Congress have drastically increased the size and scope of US unilateral sanctions. In 2010, Congress passed the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act (CISAD). The Act imposed sanctions on any person that makes an investment of $20 million or more in Iran's petroleum industry; any person that provides Iran with goods, services, technology or information with a fair market value of $1 million or more for the maintenance or expansion of Iran's production of refined petroleum products; and/or any person that exports more than $1
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Executive Order 12613--Prohibiting imports from Iran, The National Archives. http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/codification/executive-order/12613.html 48 http://www.mafhoum.com/press3/108E16.htm 49 Executive Order 12957. http://www.iraniantrade.org/12957.htm 50 Executive Order 12957. http://www.iraniantrade.org/12959.htm 51 Iran and Libya Sanctions Act of 1996, from the congressional record. http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/1996_cr/h960618b.htm 52 http://www.mafhoum.com/press3/108E16.htm 53 Executive Order 13382. US Department of State. http://www.state.gov/t/isn/c22080.htm 54 U.S. Department of State. Iran, North Korea, and Syria Nonproliferation Act Sanctions (INKSNA), www.state.gov
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