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March 7th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda A congressional source told the Associated Press on Wednesday that lawmakers from both the House and Senate will soon introduce a bipartisan legislation to compel President Barack Obama’s administration to expand US financial sanctions to every Iranian bank.
The sanctions were signed into law by Obama on New Year’s Eve, seeking to penalize countries for buying Iran’s oil or doing business with its central bank.
The sanctions still allow other Iranian banks to carry out transactions through Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT). The US and EU, however, announced on February 15 that they aim to ban these Iranian banks from using the system as well.
Western officials believe that expelling Iranian banks from the Belgium-based system will shut down Tehran’s main avenue to making transactions with the rest of the world.
The new sanctions considered by the US Congress will also ban government-owned foreign financial institutions, including foreign central banks, engaged in non-oil transactions with Iran, the unnamed congressional source added.
The pending legislation which has been submitted by the Republican lawmaker, Brad Sherman, and Republican Senator Mark Kirk, aims to tighten loopholes in current US laws.
According to the report, US officials have acknowledged privately that they cannot be sure that the economic pressure will lead Iran to abandon its nuclear energy program.
European Union (EU) foreign ministers also adopted tougher sanctions against Iran on January 23 which bans member states from importing Iranian crude or dealing with the country’s central bank.
Following the decision, EU foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, announced that new sanctions were meant to force Iran to get back to the negotiating table with the P5+1 group – including US, UK, France, Russia, China, and Germany – over its nuclear energy program.
The US and EU accuse Iran of pursuing a nuclear weapons program under the cover of its civilian nuclear energy program. Tehran refutes their claims noting that as a member of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and signatory to Non-Proliferation Treaty, it has every right to peaceful uses of the nuclear energy.
Despite strict inspections of Iran’s nuclear facilities, the IAEA has never found any evidence suggesting diversion in the Iranian nuclear energy program.
SS/AZ/HGH
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