WASHINGTON, Aug 3, (Agencies): The United States should immediately impose sanctions on Russia and China under a US law that punishes major investments in Iran’s energy sector, a senior US lawmaker said Monday.
“It’s time to implement our sanctions laws and demonstrate to Russia and China that there are consequences for abetting Tehran and flouting US sanctions,” Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen said in a statement.
Ros-Lehtinen, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said firms run by the Russian and Chinese governments had invested “huge sums” in Iran’s energy sector, “effectively bankrolling” Tehran’s alleged nuclear weapons program and its backing of Islamist groups.
She did not offer details, but US officials have noted that Chinese firms have been stepping in to fill the void left by companies leaving Iran because of UN and US sanctions.
“Russia and China appear determined to continue to facilitate Iran’s dangerous policies. This must not be allowed to continue without serious repercussions,” she said.
Her comments came as a top US State Department official, Robert Einhorn, was on a trip to Asia set to include a stop in Beijing to press China to fully enforce sanctions on Iran.
China has invested around $40 billion in the Islamic republic’s oil and gas sector, but Chinese imports of Iranian oil fell in the first half of 2010, a senior Iranian official told Mehr news agency on Saturday.
In 2009, China became Iran’s premier trading partner, with bilateral trade worth $21.2 billion against $14.4 billion three years earlier.

Imposed
Meanwhile, the United States on Tuesday imposed sanctions on 21 firms it believes are front companies for the Iranian government, stepping up pressure on the Islamic republic over its nuclear program.
Accusing Tehran of trying to dodge sanctions by setting up opaque trading companies, the Treasury Department named a host of banking, mining and other companies spread throughout Europe and Japan as government-backed.
“As its isolation from the international financial and commercial systems increases, the government of Iran will continue efforts to evade sanctions,” said Treasury undersecretary Stuart Levey.
Those moves, he said, included “using government-owned entities around the world that are not easily identifiable as Iranian to facilitate transactions in support of their illicit activities.”
The firms included two Belarus-based banks, two Germany-based investment firms, and mining and engineering companies in Japan, Germany, Luxembourg, Italy and Iran.
American citizens and businesses will now be barred from doing business with the proscribed companies.
It is the latest of a series of US moves to force a halt to Iran’s nuclear program, which Western governments say is a cover for a nuclear weapons drive.

The United States is imposing sanctions on several senior Iranian officials and organizations for allegedly supporting Hezbollah, the Taleban and other groups designated by the Washington as terrorist organizations.
The action was announced Tuesday by Levey, the Treasury Department’s undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.
The move expands a US list of groups and individuals with whom Americans are prohibited from doing business.
Those targeted include four senior officers of the Qods force, an elite arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Levey said two of the four officers provide financial and material support to the Taleban in Afghanistan.
Japan also imposed sanctions against Iran over its contentious nuclear programme on Tuesday in line with a UN resolution and said it plans to announce additional punitive measures later this month.
The cabinet of Prime Minister Naoto Kan announced the steps as the US State Department’s special adviser for non-proliferation and arms control Robert Einhorn was headed for Tokyo as part of an East Asian tour.
The measures include an asset freeze on 40 Iranian entities and one individual suspected of being involved in nuclear and missile development.
The UN Security Council in June slapped its fourth set of sanctions on Iran over its refusal to halt its uranium enrichment work, part of a nuclear programme which many nations fear masks a drive for nuclear weapons.
The United States, European Union, Canada and Australia have also announced additional sanctions, which have been opposed by Russia and China, now Iran’s closest trading partner, with major energy interests in the country.

Suffer
Meanwhile, Iranian officials lashed out on Tuesday at remarks by the top US military chief that Washington had a plan to attack Tehran, saying the US would suffer a defeat worse than in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Sunday the United States has drawn up the plan to prevent Iran getting nuclear weapons, but was “extremely concerned” about the upshot of any such attack.
“In case of an attack against Iran, their destiny will be worse than their pitiable destiny in Iraq and Afghanistan,” Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki was quoted as saying by ISNA news agency.
Mottaki hoped that better sense would prevail in Washington, saying “they said they would go to some places and they went.”
“But we have seen what happened to them. We think there are still rational people in America... who will not put the American dignity on sale.”

Earlier on Tuesday, foreign ministry’s spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast also dismissed Mullen’s remarks.
“We witness such inappropriate remarks by these American military officials,” he told reporters at his weekly news conference in Tehran.
“We think the reason behind it stems from the consecutive (US) defeats in the region and its military adventurism which has resulted in deaths of innocent citizens and of their own forces.”
In a separate statement, Iran’s Defence Minister Ahmad Vahidi described Mullen’s comments as “fascistic.”
“Such remarks are in contradiction to their claims of change that they are after dialogue and peace,” Vahidi was quoted as saying by state news agency IRNA.
Meanwhile, ships carrying petroleum to Iran face greater scrutiny at ports in the United Arab Emirates as new Western sanctions bite leaving the Islamic Republic to seek alternative hubs, trade and shipping sources say.

While the latest sanctions have excluded Iranian crude oil sales, refined oil products imports have been affected with more shipowners fearful of being in breach of the measures.
Sources said that there was closer tracking of ships operating in UAE ports which had previously been used by Iran to transport fuel cargoes.
“In the past you could have done discreet shipments from Fujairah and Jebel Ali but at the present time there are no shipments being done from there to Iran,” a trade source said.
Some shipping agents in various ports said they had not experienced greater scrutiny from UAE officials.
The UAE interior ministry declined to comment.

While the UAE has tightened its role as a trading and financial lifeline for Iran, nothing has been made public about enforcing sanctions at its ports.
“Dubai is being helpful (in enforcing sanctions) because of the economic crisis. If it were not for this crisis then we would have a different situation,” said Theodore Karasik, of the Dubai-based Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis.
Diplomatic relations between US ally the UAE and Iran, which have strong trade links, are growing increasingly fraught. Gulf Arab governments have shared Western fears that Iran could become a nuclear armed state.
The West suspects Iran’s nuclear work is aimed at bomb-making but Tehran says it is for peaceful purposes. Wide ranging US and European Union sanctions last month have aimed to squeeze Iran’s fuel imports and increase its international isolation.