WASHINGTON — Republicans and Democrats are pressuring congressional negotiators to produce legislation imposing the severest penalties on Iran, targeting its energy sector and financial institutions as the United States seeks to weaken Tehran economically and derail its pursuit of nuclear weapons.
Meanwhile in Virginia, a senior European Union official is reporting no progress in the newest international push to persuade Iran to curb activities that could be used to make nuclear weapons, leaving the resumption of high-stakes negotiations with Tehran in doubt, diplomats said Friday.
With just one week before Congress’ August break, proponents of tough sanctions see this as their last, best chance for far-reaching, crippling penalties as recent high-level talks between world powers and Iran have failed to curb its uranium enrichment. Iran insists that its program is solely for peaceful purposes.
“Now is the time to ratchet up the pressure,” Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Fla., said in an interview this week.
Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, have been negotiating privately for several weeks to reach consensus on sanctions legislation that the House passed in December and the Senate approved in May.
About a half-dozen Republicans and Democrats who favor heavy penalties are determined to see the toughest measure yet and have been insisting to negotiators that a watered-down bill is unacceptable.
“We owe it to the American people to exhaust every possible non-military option to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapons capability,” Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., said in a statement.
Rep. Robert Dold, R-Ill., and Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., sent a letter this week to the negotiators calling for a final bill that includes a provision declaring Iran’s energy sector “a zone of proliferation concern.” The blacklisting would bar all transactions with the state-run National Iranian Oil Company.
“This would have the effect of making virtually any transaction with - and provision of services for - the firms in Iran’s energy sector sanctionable,” Dold and Sherman wrote.
The lawmakers also said any legislation should include sanctions on insurance companies that knowingly provide coverage to an entity that has already been penalized.
They also are pressing for sanctions on the directors and shareholders of organizations like SWIFT, the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications, unless they stop providing services to the Central Bank of Iran.
The bill the House passed last year would restrict foreign subsidiaries of U.S. companies from doing business with Iran. Bartering is included among the activities that could be sanctioned, and Americans would be prohibited from conducting commercial or financial transactions with the Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.
The Senate-passed bill would target the Revolutionary Guard, require companies that trade on the U.S. stock exchange to disclose any Iran-related business to the Securities and Exchange Commission and would expand penalties for energy and uranium joint -mining ventures with Tehran.
The bill also would deny visas and freeze assets on individuals and companies that supply Iran with technology that could be used to crack down on its citizens, such as tear gas, rubber bullets and surveillance equipment.
Lawmakers, including House Republican and Democratic leaders, are hopeful that they can reach consensus on the measure and pass a bill next week.
After talks between diplomats from six world powers and Iranian officials fizzled on June 19, a meeting held Tuesday between senior EU envoy Helga Schmid and Ali Bagheri, Iran’s deputy nuclear negotiator, was an attempt to restart top-level nuclear talks.
Neither side wants to give up the talks. Iran seeks relief from sanctions. The U.S and other countries at the table with Tehran fear that the failure of negotiations could prompt Israel to make good on its threat to attack Tehran’s nuclear installations - a move that could draw Washington into the conflict.
With no progress in June, the two sides agreed to kick the talks down to low-level experts in an attempt to better understand each others’ positions.
That expert meeting in June was followed by the Schmid-Bagheri talks, which looked for signs of possible nearing of positions. But one of two diplomats told The Associated Press that Schmid has reported “no progress” to EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who in turn is informing the six powers - the U.S., Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany - of the results of the meeting.
In other developments,Iran’s semiofficial Mehr news agency quoted Hasan Radmard, deputy industry minister, as saying Iran has been buying wheat, cooking oil, sugar and rice to stockpile a three-month supply of food for its population.
Radmard said the decision was made on the basis of a decree by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in recent weeks. Part of the purchased foodstuffs has already been imported, he added.
Information for this article was contributed by George Jahn and Nasser Karimi of The Associated Press.
Front Section, Pages 2 on 07/28/2012