US Senators Urge Biden To Enforce Iran Oil Sanctions Amid Attacks
A bipartisan group of US Senators are pushing the Biden administration for stricter enforcement of Iran’s oil sanctions, as the country’s exports reach a five year high.
A bipartisan group of US Senators are pushing the Biden administration for stricter enforcement of Iran’s oil sanctions, as the country’s exports reach a five year high.
In a letter to President Biden Thursday, 18 Senators from both parties demand maximum efforts to “prevent illicit trade in Iranian oil,” which provides the regime with funds necessary to support its proxies.
“In the wake of the October 7 terror attacks and subsequent attacks by Iran-backed proxies on U.S. forces in the Middle East, we urge you to work harder to stop Iran’s funneling of lucrative oil exports to finance terror,” the Senators told President Joe Biden.
The letter comes right after a similar initiative by 62 House members, who stressed that ongoing attacks on US troops in the Middle East clearly show whatever is being done is not enough and more pressure must be applied on Tehran.
Significantly, both letters have been signed by some Democrats, as well as the more critical Republicans.
Senate Democrats seem to have lost patience with Biden’s unwillingness to effectively enforce sanctions on Iran’s oil exports. They have joined their Republican colleagues to suggest immediate sanctions against ships and even foreign ports that carry Iranian oil.
They point out that the Iranian regime has taken in at least $88b from their oil exports since February 2021, compared to just $5b when former president Trump’s “maximum pressure” was still in place.
Iran now exports oil more than any time in the past five years, according to Japan’s influential daily Nikkei, with as much as 90% of the total exports going to China. This is confirmed also by United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), which tracks Iranian oil exports.
"While global supply routes have been seriously affected by the Houthi attacks, Iran’s oil trade, especially to its number one importer, China, has continued unabated,” reads UANI’s latest report.
President Biden has been under growing pressure to reverse its policy on Iran since Hamas’ rampage of Israel –which many believe would have not been possible without the backing of the Iranian regime. The pressure has grown even further after last weekend’s deadly attack on American soldiers by Iran-backed militia Iraq.
“You cannot continue to embolden Iran,” Senator Marsha Blackburn said in an interview with Fox News Thursday. “You cannot continue to let them sell their oil and make billions of dollars, and then put that money into building nuclear warheads through uranium enrichment and through funding terrorism.”
Officials from the Biden administration say no Iran sanction has been lifted under their watch. But “enforcement” is as important as the actual sanctions. And it’s on the question of enforcement that the current administration seems to have disappointed many, even Democratic senators.
But what Biden critics want from him may not be readily achievable –not in 2024, at least.
"[Biden] prioritizes low oil prices, especially in an election year," says Robert McNally, president of Rapidan Energy Group and a former senior White House policy official. "If [Biden] did crack down, it would impact global balances and prices, especially if Iran retaliated by threatening [Persian] Gulf production and export flows."
And then there’s China: Iran’s main customer which happens to be a global superpower. China can always find a way to get around the sanctions. It needs to: to keep feeding its gargantuan economy.
“Ultimately, China has and will continue to develop sanctions-proof entities which are not connected to the US financial system and won't be hurt (much) by sanctions,” former state department advisor on Iran Gabriel Noronha posted on X. “Leverage has to come from other files - as with recent China negotiations, find pressure everywhere."
Citing US officials, CBS News reported on Thursday that Washington has sanctioned plans for multi-day strikes against various targets, including Iranian personnel and facilities. CBS did not provide details on what a US approval meant in terms of a timeline for the strikes.
NBC also reported Thursday that The Biden administration hasn’t yet finalized targets, but it is preparing a “campaign” that could last “weeks.” Citing unnamed officials, NBC said the targets are expected to include Iranian targets outside Iran, and the campaign will involve both strikes and cyber operations.
The attack by Iran-backed militia forces over the weekend resulted in the death of three American service members and left more than 40 injured. Since then, the global community has been anticipating a response from the United States to the Islamic Republic.
President Joe Biden said on Tuesday that he had made up his mind on how to respond to the drone attack at the Tower 22 base in northeastern Jordan, near the Syrian border. Biden's top diplomat, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, said on Monday the US response "could be multi-leveled, come in stages, and be sustained over time."
Biden's administration said it was not seeking a war with Iran, even as Republican pressure on him to respond forcefully has been rising. Iranian officials have said Tehran will respond to any threat from the United States, emphasizing that Tehran would respond decisively to any attack on its territory, its interests, or Iranian nationals outside its borders.
Meanwhile, Iran's Revolutionary Guards, the IRGC, has reduced the presence of its senior officers in Syria due to a spate of deadly Israeli strikes and will rely more on its militia proxies. Also, Kataib Hezbollah, a pro-Iranian militia based in Iraq, said on Tuesday it was suspending military actions against the United States. Iran International reported last week that some in Tehran suspect an Israeli infiltration in tracking and pinpointing the whereabouts of senior IRGC officers in Syria.
Four US officials told Reuters on Thursday that the US has assessed that Iran manufactured the drone that slammed into the base. While the initial indications were that the drone was likely Iranian, a formal assessment was made only recently after recovering fragments of the drone.
Speaking at the Pentagon Thursday, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin reiterated that the US will not tolerate attacks on American troops. "This is a dangerous moment in the Middle East," Austin said, pointing to Israel's ongoing war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip and attacks by Houthi rebels in Yemen on commercial shipping in the Red Sea. "We will continue to work to avoid a wider conflict in the region, but we will take all necessary actions to defend the United States, our interests and our people, and we will respond when we choose, where we choose and how we choose."
"We're still doing the forensics," Austin said. "But most of the drones that are in the region have a connection with Iran... How much Iran knew or didn't know, we don't know. But it really doesn't matter because Iran sponsors these groups, it funds these groups, and in some cases, it trains these groups on advanced, conventional weapons."
Marking an escalation in tensions that have engulfed the Middle East, the drone attack in Jordan was the first deadly strike against US forces since the conflict began on October 7, when Tehran-backed Hamas invaded Israel, killed 1,200 mostly civilians and took hundreds of hostages. US troops have been attacked more than 160 times in Iraq, Syria and Jordan since the events of October 7, a flareup aimed at pressuring Israel to cease its offensive in Gaza.
In the wake of the attack, several other Iran-funded groups have intensified attacks on US and Israeli targets in Iraq and Syria while the Houthis of Yemen have been attacking international shipping in the Red Sea. Iranian officials claim that the country has had no active role in the conflict, but the proxies are the brainchild of Iran's Supreme Leader. During 2023, Khamenei met with leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah, suggesting top level coordination of the attacks which have triggered the worst violence in the region in years.
According to the Semafor news website, the claimants include the Raanan family who saw Judith Raanan and her daughter Natalie kidnapped to the Gaza Strip. They were both released under a prisoner swap deal between Hamas and Israel.
Two other claimants are the families of Daniel Levi Ludmir and Itay Glisko, both murdered by Hamas militants. Ludmir was a 34-year-old physician who was killed at Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7 when he was tending to the injured. Glisko, a 20-year-old sergeant of the Israeli army, lost his life on October 8 during clashes with Palestinian militants.
According to Semafor, the victims’ families hold Tehran and Damascus responsible for “arming and financing Hamas” and “helping to orchestrate” the October 7 offensive.
Binance and its former chief executive Changpeng Zhao have also been accused of “allowing Hamas to use the cryptocurrency platform to conduct financial transactions and make payments.”
In November, the US Department of Justice, Treasury, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission imposed a record $4.4 billion fine on Binance on allegations that it enabled the laundering of substantial sums of illicit money worldwide.
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen stated, “Binance turned a blind eye to its legal obligations in the pursuit of profit. Its wilful failures allowed money to flow to terrorists, cybercriminals, and child abusers through its platform.”
Meanwhile, in a second case, NBC News reported that 67 US citizens filed a $1 billion federal lawsuit against Iran over its role in Hamas’s onslaught on Israel.
Some of those who were injured or taken hostage by Hamas militants as well as the families of the murdered are among the plaintiffs in the suit which was filed in US District Court for the District of Columbia.
“Iran bears direct responsibility for the October 7 attacks. Indeed, that point is essentially undisputed. The Iranian regime has openly flaunted its motive for aiding the horrors,” read the lawsuit.
The plaintiffs called Iran the “sworn enemy of Israel and the United States,” further adding that the regime “masterminded and funded” Hamas’ rampage in an attempt to disrupt the normalization talks between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
The lawsuits appear to be the first legal attempts to hold Tehran accountable for October 7's attacks which saw at least 1,200 killed, including at least 30 US citizens, and 250 more taken hostage.
It was the single most deadly day for Jews since the Holocaust, with hostages hailing from around 40 nationalities including Thai, Russian, British and German.
Though Iran has officially denied involvement in the massacre, Tehran held celebrations just hours after the atrocities with huge posters around the city, suggesting foreknowledge of the horrors which unfolded after thousands of Hamas militants invaded Israel by air, land and sea.
Leaders as high up as Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei had met with Hamas leaders at an increasing pace last year suggesting the highest level of coordination with the regime in the attacks which sparked a region-wide escalation.
Iran-backed proxies in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen have pledged solidarity with Hamas after Israel’s relentless retaliation has left devastation in the strip, targeting both US and Israeli targets as well as international shipping in the Red Sea in a bid to force Israel into a ceasefire.
US intelligence has shown that on average, Tehran has funded Hamas $100 million annually in addition to provision of weaponry and training.
The IRGC’s top commander Hossein Salami is one of the many who have denied Iran’s involvement in the attack and claimed that “it was designed and implemented by Palestinians and no decision was made outside of Palestine.”