August 2, 2012 (TSR) – Texas Congressman Ron Paul says the US is “obsessed with” keeping Iran under illegal sanctions, while pushing for furthering the embargoes in, what he calls, an act of war against the Islamic Republic.
Addressing Congress on Wednesday, Paul accused Washington of “marching into a determination to have another war.”
“When you put on sanctions on a country, it’s an act of war and that’s what this is all about,” he said.
“I think this bill would be better named Obsession with Iran Act 2012,” Paul said, referring to a bill, which has been approved by the House of Representatives and the Senate, targeting Iran’s energy sector.
In a statement, released by the White House, US President Barack Obama has said the existing illegal sanctions on Iran’s oil industry has been expanded “by making sanctionable the purchase or acquisition of Iranian petrochemical products.” He said that the US sanctions will apply to any financial institution that allows Iran to access the international financial system.
However, Paul said, “What we continue to be doing is obsess with Iran and the idea that Iran is a threat to our national security.”
He asserted, “The IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) and our CIA said they are not on the verge of a nuclear weapon. It is so similar to what we went through in the early part of this last decade, when we were beating the war drums to go to war against Iraq. And it was all a façade. There was no danger from Iraq.”
The new embargoes build on Iranian crude sanctions, signed into law in December and approved in March, that penalize other countries for buying or selling Iran’s oil. The sanctions took effect on June 28.
The US sanctions are meant to pile up pressure on Iran over its nuclear energy program, which Washington, Tel Aviv, and some of their allies claim may include a military aspect.
Iran refutes the allegation and holds that, as a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and a member of the IAEA, it is entitled to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes.
Iran Sanctions Are to Gratify Israel
“I think we can look at this latest action by the American government in the interesting context of the presidential campaign,” Franklin Lamb said in an interview with Press TV.
“What happened is the Congress pushed by the Zionist lobby and by the Republicans, in their second-tier leadership position in the Congress, they drafted legislation and the House, as you know, voted on it yesterday,” he added.
On Wednesday, the US Congress ratified additional sanctions against Iran in an attempt to impose further restrictions against the country’s oil exports.
The Congress’ new motion targets any individual or entity that interacts with Iran’s petroleum or natural gas sector, participates in Iran’s mining of uranium, sells oil tankers to Tehran, or offers insurance coverage to the National Iranian Tanker Co.
The plan comes on top of earlier sanctions announced by US President Barack Obama against Iran’s energy and petrochemical sectors on Tuesday.
“It was a very shrewd political deal. The Senate will ratify no doubt on Friday and Obama will sign their legislation which is basically the same as the executive order although it adds a little bit,” Lamb pointed out.
The West’s sanctions are meant to pressure the Islamic Republic over its nuclear energy program, which Washington, Israel and some of their allies claim includes a military aspect.
Following the US-engineered sanctions on Iran’s banking, the imports of more than fifty kinds of badly needed medicine for people who suffer from certain diseases such as cancer, children’s cancer, thalassemia, multiple sclerosis (MS), and respiratory and heart diseases, have declined drastically.
Those who suffer from such diseases hardly find their medicine or if they do, they should pay a high price.
Many prominent international lawyers, Lamb and Francis Boyle, contend that Iran is entitled to file a lawsuit with the International Court of Justice against the US, France, the UK and their allies, on behalf of all Iranian citizens being harmed by illegal and political economic sanctions.
Source: Press TV
