Video of Congressman Sherman in Action
Washington, D.C. - Congressman Brad Sherman today sharply criticized the Bush Administration at a joint subcommittee hearing on Iran policy, noting that Iran’s nuclear program continues unabated while the Bush Administration still searches for an effective strategy to prevent Tehran from developing the bomb.
"As we speak, Iran has more than 3,000 centrifuges installed, and is installing more. Yet we have not come close to imposing the type of sanctions that could cause them to even consider changing course on uranium enrichment."
Sherman argued that the U.S. will have to stop pulling punches and will have to coerce countries – among them, our closest friends – to get behind a tough diplomatic and economic effort to stop Iran’s program. It will also mean a reordering of American priorities vis-à-vis China and Russia, the two main obstacles to tough U.N.–approved sanctions measures.
"On the one hand we push policies that are anathema to Russia, such as the eastward expansion of NATO; on the other hand, we basically give China a free pass, allowing Beijing to violate trade rules and run up a massive trade surplus with the US. We never even hint that how we deal with these two key countries will be determined by their assistance on Iran issues. Is it any wonder both countries have worked to water-down all three of the U.N. Iran resolutions to near irrelevance?"
"We need to link our China and Russia policies to our Iran policy if we want to get tough U.N. sanctions,” Sherman added. “But we also need to push Europe and our friends in Asia to stop doing business as usual with Iran, with or without the U.N."
Sherman noted that President Bush has ignored the Iran Sanctions Act, which allows him to slap penalties on foreign firms that help Iran develop its energy sector; has failed to prevent the continued disbursement of $1.3 billion worth of World Bank loans to Iran; opposes legislation that would merely authorize states, private pension and mutual fund managers to divest from Iran; and even protects Iranian assets from being seized to satisfy the court judgments of victims of Iranian terrorism.
"Unless we start causing some pain to Iran's government and its economy, not mere inconvenience, we will soon be faced with a nuclear adversary unlike any other we have faced in the past – one which we may not be able to deter," said Sherman.
