Democrats to urge more Iran sanctions

Chuckie Schumer announced that he has a letter to the White House with 23 Senators’ signature urging sanctions against an Iranian bank (WSJ Online link);

A letter urging President Bush to take action is expected to be sent to the White House today by Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, who said yesterday that 26 Democrats have signed the letter, including Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and Majority Whip Richard Durbin of Illinois.

The letter is an attempt to influence internal deliberations within the Treasury and State departments about whether to levy the new sanctions, Mr. Schumer said in an interview. “We are trying to weigh in on what we think is the right side,” Mr. Schumer said.

“The one really effective thing we have done against Iran is the sanctions on the banks,” he added. “And now what the banks have done is that the central bank is handling their business for them, so unless you sanction the central bank, you are not going to get anywhere.”

The letter contends that the bank “is heavily involved in the funding of terrorism and the financing of Iran’s proliferation activities,” according to a draft, which cites statements on the matter made in recent years by both the Treasury and State departments.

Now, see, the Senate Democrats have admitted, on the record, that they’re aware of the Iranian government’s involvement in worldwide terrorism, yet they’re reluctant to come right out and urge the use of force against Iran. Even though there’s abundant evidence that Iran is funding and training resistance against US forces in Iraq (World Tribune link);

The U.S.-led coalition has captured a senior Iranian operative who helped finance and equip Shi’ite militias.

U.S. Army paratroopers detained the suspected senior leader of the Iranian-sponsored Special Groups network during an operation in Baghdad’s Beida neighborhood on Feb. 27, Middle East Newsline reported.

Officials said the Special Groups was trained and equipped by Iran. They said the organization, believed to comprise a series of cells, introduced the Explosively-Formed Penetrator, designed to destroy U.S. — and other Western origin main battle tanks.

The UN voted for additional sanctions yesterday (AFP/Yahoo link)

Fourteen of the council’s 15 members voted in favor of Resolution 1803, sponsored by Britain, France and Germany, which slapped a third set of economic and trade sanctions on Iran in 15 months.

Indonesia abstained during the vote which was presided over by Russia, the council chair for March.

But Libya, South Africa and Vietnam, which joined Indonesia in expressing reservations about the need for fresh sanctions at a time when Iran is cooperating with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), voted in favor in the end.

After the vote, the six powers trying to scale back Iran’s nuclear ambitions issued a statement calling for new talks between EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Iran’s nuclear negotiator.

But Ahmadinijad announced today that sanctions are “worthless” (ABC News/AP link)

Iran vowed to push ahead with uranium enrichment Tuesday, a day after the U.N. Security Council passed a third round of sanctions that Tehran called “worthless” and politically biased.

Now, I remember L’il Chuckie Schumer, when he was in the House, called sanctions against Serbia worthless and urged the (Democrat) Administration to use military force against Serbia – Serbia, which posed no military or economic threat to the United States at all.

The Washington Times (and Atlas Shrugs) reports that Qatar is funding Hamas – does Chuckie want us to freeze Qatar’s assets, too? After all, his reasoning for freezing Iran’s assets is their funding of terrorists, but then, Chuckie, the senior self-hating Jew in Congress, probably doesn’t think Hamas is a terrorist organization.

Category: Foreign Policy, Politics, Terror War