NORTHBROOK, Illinois (Press Release) – Congressman and Illinois Senate candidate Mark Kirk on Wednesday, July 28, launched a national online petition drive urging the President to seal off gasoline deliveries to Iran by enforcing a recently enacted Iran sanctions bill.
“A nuclear-armed Iran would destabilize the Middle East, weaken America’s national security and pose an existential danger to the State of Israel,” Kirk wrote in an email to supporters today. “Time is not on our side. That is why I am starting a national grassroots petition for your voice to be heard. Join me in urging the President to enforce the new sanctions law and seal off Iran’s gasoline before it’s too late.”
Despite its status as a leading oil-producing nation, the Iranian economy depends heavily on imports of gasoline. On July 1st, the President signed the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act of 2010 into law. This bill gave the President the power to impose economic sanctions against entities that provide gasoline to Iran. To date, the President has not enforced this new law.
Congressman Kirk is the co-founder of the Iran Working Group and original author of Iran gasoline sanctions legislation. In 2005 and again in 2006, Kirk and Congressman Rob Andrews (D-N.J.) introduced bipartisan resolutions calling for a multilateral restriction of gasoline deliveries to Iran as the most effective economic sanction to bring Iran’s leaders into compliance with their commitments under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
In 2007, Kirk and Andrews authored the Iran Sanctions Enhancement Act (H.R. 2880), which extended current U.S. sanctions to the provision of gasoline to Iran. Last year, Kirk and Congressman Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) reintroduced the bill as the Iran Diplomatic Enhancement Act (H.R. 1985), which subsequently was incorporated into the Iran Refined Petroleum Sanctions Act (H.R. 2194) and the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act of 2010.
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Preceding provided by Congressman Kirk