Congress Approves Iran, NK Measures

Miles A. Pomper

Lawmakers in late September approved measures granting the executive branch new authority to punish North Korea and Iran for their missile and nuclear programs. But Congress also endorsed measures that would require intelligence agencies to provide a new definitive assessment of Iran’s capabilities and that call on the president to establish a North Korea policy czar.

The measures came amid increasing tensions with both countries.

On Sept. 28 and 30, respectively, the House and Senate easily approved the Iran Freedom Support Act, which alters existing sanctions on Iran and extends them for another five years. President George W. Bush Sept. 30 signed the legislation, which was watered down considerably from an earlier House-passed bill. The House bill had run into objections from the Senate and the White House. (See ACT, July/August 2006.)

The final measure codifies sanctions that had been placed on Iran by executive orders in the 1990s and earlier this decade. Congressional approval will therefore be required before they could be lifted in the future.

The bill also included nonbinding language calling on the administration not to enter into a civil nuclear cooperation agreement with any country that is assisting Tehran’s nuclear program or transferring advanced conventional arms or missiles to Iran. That provision was clearly aimed at Russia, which is seeking such an agreement with the United States. (See ACT, September 2006.) Russia is building a nuclear reactor in Bushehr, Iran, and has been a longtime arms supplier to Tehran.

Russian officials said the legislation would not deter them from moving ahead with the Bushehr project. “There are things that are more important than bilateral [U.S.-Russian] cooperation, including respect for international law,” Nikolay N. Spasskiy, deputy head of the Russian Federal Atomic Energy Agency, told a Washington audience of experts Oct. 3.

Spasskiy noted that deliveries of fuel to Bushehr were set to begin next year. “If in the interim there are no international restrictions on proceeding with Bushehr, we will go ahead,” he vowed.

The measure will also permit administration officials to designate as “primary money laundering concerns” entities involved in the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction or missiles.

The Bush administration already has authority under the USA PATRIOT Act to target other concerns, such as drug trafficking, terrorism, and counterfeiting. In one case that has had an indirect effect on nonproliferation, the administration used the authority to target Banco Delta Asia, a Macau-based bank that allegedly helped North Korea by distributing counterfeit U.S. currency and laundering money gained from illicit activities such as drug trafficking.

In that case, the Department of the Treasury more than a year ago proposed a rule that, if adopted, would bar U.S. financial institutions from opening or maintaining accounts for Banco Delta Asia. The rule has yet to be adopted or withdrawn, but in the interim, U.S. officials have successfully put pressure on Macau to take action against the bank.

North Korea has cited the action against the Macau bank as a reason for refusing to attend six-party talks aimed at ending its nuclear program.

In another congressional action, the House Sept. 30 unanimously approved adding North Korea to existing legislation that punishes foreigners who transfer goods and technologies to Syria and Iran that could contribute to their ability to produce missiles and nuclear weapons. The Bush administration has imposed these sanctions dozens of times. The Senate had passed the measure in July after a series of missile tests by Pyongyang. (See ACT, September 2006.)

Lawmakers also included two provisions proposed by Senate Democrats in the fiscal year 2007 defense appropriations bill that will apply to Iran and North Korea. Fiscal year 2007 began Oct. 1.

One provision seeks to avoid a repeat of the flawed intelligence presented to Congress prior to their authorization of the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq that claimed the existence of chemical and biological weapons programs in that country and alleged that Saddam Hussein’s regime was attempting to revive Iraq’s nuclear weapons program. The bill language would require the director of national intelligence to provide an updated comprehensive national intelligence estimate on Iran. Such estimates are intended to be the intelligence community’s most authoritative product.

Another provision requires the president to appoint a senior presidential adviser to conduct a full review of U.S. policy toward North Korea, including consultations with foreign governments. The measure is similar to legislation passed in the late 1990s that led to the appointment of former Secretary of Defense William Perry as special adviser to the president and secretary of state for the review of U.S. policy toward North Korea.