Jigs
ELITE MEMBER
- Joined
- Dec 27, 2009
- Messages
- 3,735
- Reaction score
- 0
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
WASHINGTON – From wires dispatches
Two US senators have urged Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to punish Turkish and Chinese companies – including Turkish refiner Tüpraş – for reportedly providing Iran with refined petroleum products. Tupraş has said in the past that it was no longer exporting petroleum products to Iran and did not expect any penalties to be leveled against it
The United States should punish Turkish and Chinese firms reportedly providing Iran with refined petroleum products, two senior U.S. senators urged Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday.
Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer and Republican Senator Jon Kyl, his party's number-two leader in the chamber, called on Clinton to "promptly" enforce a U.S. law aimed at denying Iran access to world gasoline markets.
The United States should "penalize those companies that are continuing to supply Iran with refined petroleum products" since President Barack Obama signed the law in July, they wrote.
"According to press reports, these would include Turkey's Tüpraş, and China's Sinopec, National Petroleum Corporation, CNPC, and Zhuhai Zhenrong," said Kyl and Schumer, whose offices made the letter public.
Tüpraş Türkiye Petrol Rafinerileri AŞ, or Tüpraş, Turkey’s sole refiner, said it’s not selling fuel products to Iran and does not expect any sanctions to be imposed on the company, according to a filing with the Istanbul Stock exchange last month.
The company said last month that it had stopped exporting petroleum products to Iran and was not liable to any penalties under the sanctions regime.
U.S. lawmakers have bitterly complained that Chinese firms have taken the place of European rivals leaving the Iranian market, undermining international sanctions aimed at halting Tehran's suspect nuclear program.
Washington should also tighten the financial noose on Iran by imposing sanctions on its Central Bank and taking steps "to ensure Iranian banks are not able to participate in the international banking system," they said.
The Obama administration should also move to deny U.S. government contracts to firms that exports communications jamming or monitoring technology to Iran, they said. The senators also pressed Clinton to act on the sanctions irrespective of Iran's stated willingness to return to talks with world powers who accuse the Islamic republic of a secret campaign to develop a nuclear weapon.
The lawmakers said Iran aimed to use such outreach as it has in the past to gain "a reprieve from sanctions," only to stymie Washington and its partners later. "We must urge our allies to resist any false entreaty to negotiate from Iran. You will have the full support of the Congress in doing all that's necessary to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran," Kyl and Schumer said.
"The window to stop the Iranian regime from obtaining nuclear weapons capability through sanctions is rapidly closing," they said.
Tehran denies it seeks nuclear weapons and says its atomic energy program is for purely civilian purposes.
Iran, Brazil and Turkey issued a joint fuel swap declaration on May 17, based on which Tehran agreed to exchange 1,200 kg of its low-enriched uranium on Turkish soil with fuel for its Tehran research reactor.
Compiled from AFP and Bloomberg reports by the Daily News staff.
WASHINGTON – From wires dispatches
Two US senators have urged Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to punish Turkish and Chinese companies – including Turkish refiner Tüpraş – for reportedly providing Iran with refined petroleum products. Tupraş has said in the past that it was no longer exporting petroleum products to Iran and did not expect any penalties to be leveled against it
The United States should punish Turkish and Chinese firms reportedly providing Iran with refined petroleum products, two senior U.S. senators urged Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday.
Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer and Republican Senator Jon Kyl, his party's number-two leader in the chamber, called on Clinton to "promptly" enforce a U.S. law aimed at denying Iran access to world gasoline markets.
The United States should "penalize those companies that are continuing to supply Iran with refined petroleum products" since President Barack Obama signed the law in July, they wrote.
"According to press reports, these would include Turkey's Tüpraş, and China's Sinopec, National Petroleum Corporation, CNPC, and Zhuhai Zhenrong," said Kyl and Schumer, whose offices made the letter public.
Tüpraş Türkiye Petrol Rafinerileri AŞ, or Tüpraş, Turkey’s sole refiner, said it’s not selling fuel products to Iran and does not expect any sanctions to be imposed on the company, according to a filing with the Istanbul Stock exchange last month.
The company said last month that it had stopped exporting petroleum products to Iran and was not liable to any penalties under the sanctions regime.
U.S. lawmakers have bitterly complained that Chinese firms have taken the place of European rivals leaving the Iranian market, undermining international sanctions aimed at halting Tehran's suspect nuclear program.
Washington should also tighten the financial noose on Iran by imposing sanctions on its Central Bank and taking steps "to ensure Iranian banks are not able to participate in the international banking system," they said.
The Obama administration should also move to deny U.S. government contracts to firms that exports communications jamming or monitoring technology to Iran, they said. The senators also pressed Clinton to act on the sanctions irrespective of Iran's stated willingness to return to talks with world powers who accuse the Islamic republic of a secret campaign to develop a nuclear weapon.
The lawmakers said Iran aimed to use such outreach as it has in the past to gain "a reprieve from sanctions," only to stymie Washington and its partners later. "We must urge our allies to resist any false entreaty to negotiate from Iran. You will have the full support of the Congress in doing all that's necessary to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran," Kyl and Schumer said.
"The window to stop the Iranian regime from obtaining nuclear weapons capability through sanctions is rapidly closing," they said.
Tehran denies it seeks nuclear weapons and says its atomic energy program is for purely civilian purposes.
Iran, Brazil and Turkey issued a joint fuel swap declaration on May 17, based on which Tehran agreed to exchange 1,200 kg of its low-enriched uranium on Turkish soil with fuel for its Tehran research reactor.
Compiled from AFP and Bloomberg reports by the Daily News staff.
