Iran Slams US Senate's Approval of Sanctions Extension

Iran on Thursday condemned the US Senate for its approval of a bill to extend five-year sanctions against Iran, denouncing it as a move against international norms.

"The use of sanctions as a political tool is an archaic and failed move, contradicting with international norms," the official IRNA news agency quoted Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi as saying.

The U.S. Senate on Wednesday voted 96 to 2 to extend the 1996 Iran-Libya Sanctions Act, which bans foreign enterprises from investing more than 20 million dollars in either Iran or Libya's energy sector.

It was reported that the U.S. House of Representatives opted late Wednesday to postpone a vote on a similar bill until Thursday.

"The extension of the sanctions indicates the lack of logic in U.S. foreign relations, its resort to force and violence, as well as America's enmity with a nation which has showed itself an example of democracy to the region," Asefi stated.

"In a world which is quickly moving toward cooperation and convergence, the United States will end up helpless and once again be left isolated among countries," Asefi added.

Although the senate has approved the five-year extension of the act, it is yet to be submitted to President George W. Bush for approval before it becomes law.

The U.S. Senate approved the bill as the act is going to expire and a powerful pro-Israeli lobby is pressing for another full five- year extension of the sanctions. The Bush administration was reported in favor of a two-year extension.

Iran and the United States severed relations in 1980 after some Muslim students occupied the U.S. embassy in Tehran following the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The United States has since imposed economic sanctions against Iran.

To intensify the punitive measures, Washington imposed the Iran- Libya Sanctions Act in August 1996, threatening to punish foreign firms investment in the two "hostile" countries.

The Act, however, has been strongly opposed by the European Union countries and oil companies, especially those from France, Italy and the Netherlands.






People's Daily Online --- http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/