Sanctions

Following U.S. accusations on Oct. 11 that elements of Iran’s government conspired to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States, members of Congress reiterated calls to increase sanctions on foreign firms doing business with Iran.

Iran apparently is on the verge of starting full-scale testing of more powerful centrifuges, but a senior U.S. official and other experts said Tehran would not necessarily be able to produce and use those machines in large quantities.

Iran is keeping open the option of pursuing nuclear weapons but apparently has not yet decided to take that route, U.S. intelligence officials told Congress in an update of a 2007 assessment.

In a nod to long-standing Obama administration requests, Congress will delay finalizing sanctions legislation on Iran while the UN Security Council considers its own draft sanctions resolution, the two lead sponsors of the legislation said in a May 25 press release. “[W]ith the progress in negotiations at the Security Council, we believe that our overriding goal of preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapons capability is best served by providing a limited amount of time for those efforts—and expected follow-on action by the EU [European Union] at its mid-June summit—to reach a successful conclusion before we send our bill to the President,” said the statement by House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Howard Berman (D-Calif.) and Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.).