Obama lost leverage in Iran nuclear talks by easing sanctions, critics say

Obama lost leverage in Iran nuclear talks by easing sanctions, critics say

The sanctions and the post-deal prospects for the Iranian economy are looming as a bigger issue as the talks reach a critical phase. Nearly all Republicans and several key Democrats on Capitol Hill share Mr. Dubowitz’s view that the Obama administration has given too much to Iran by easing sanctions throughout the negotiating process.

President Obama’s top advisers strongly reject that assessment. Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken, formerly the president’s deputy national security adviser, told Congress this month that existing sanctions are still inflicting massive pain on Iran’s economy.

“In the event Iran were to renege on any commitment it made, the sanctions would snap back in full force,” Mr. Blinken told the House Foreign Affairs Committee on March 19.

At the same hearing, Adam Szubin, acting Treasury undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said that even though the U.S., Iran and other world powers signed a joint plan of action for negotiating more than a year ago, he and others in the administration “have worked very intensively to enforce our sanctions.”

“In the past 15 months, we’ve targeted nearly 100 actors, individuals and companies who are either helping Iran evade sanctions or helping Iran conduct other misconduct,” Mr. Szubin said. “We have imposed nearly of half a billion dollars in penalties on companies that were conducting illicit transactions under our Iran sanctions, and we will not soften our enforcement of existing sanctions.”

A debate over numbers

After Mr. Szubin’s remarks, Treasury officials provided to The Washington Times a rundown of six sanctions enforcement announcements from December 2013 to December 2014.

Among the more high-profile developments was in April 2014, when Treasury sanctioned a host of individuals for operating front companies in the Middle East and China on grounds that they were helping Tehran procure ballistic missile equipment and evade oil sector sanctions.

But Mr. Dubowitz and others at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies said the sanctions haven’t been enough and the administration’s claims of toughness were overblown.

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