Counterterrorism Blog

Two U.S. House subcommittees held a joint hearing yesterday on financial sanctions against regimes which support terrorism and WMD proliferation (scroll down to that hearing for all statements and testimony). Victor Comras was one of a panel of non-governmental experts who testified, and he presented his testimony on the weakness of the U.N.'s recent Iran sanctions package. "The sanctions measures so far adopted by the Security Council have already proved insufficient to motivate Iran to curtail its enrichment activities, and have led, in fact, to its acceleration. Rather than demonstrate the international community’s commitment to forcing Iran to halt its nuclear arms program, they have conveyed the sense that key countries lack the political will necessary to face up to Iran’s challenge to non proliferation norms." Victor emphasized the need for European countries to apply pressure on Iran, which they have yet to do. In his view, European sanctions should particularly target (1) Iran's need for capital improvement and investment, (2) its growing general commercial sector, (3) its state owned banks (which are already notorious for their role in international ML/TF and corrupt practices), and (4) the IRGC and leading political Mullahs.

Both Democrats and Republicans were critical of the lack of measures against Iran, and of the Administration for not invoking all provisions of the Iran Sanctions Act, i.e., we are still allowing $170 million per year of imports from Iranian companies of non-energy items. Both parties will push for new divestment and "terror-free investing" legislation aimed against companies investing in or doing business with states supporting terrorism and WMD proliferation. Missouri Treasurer Sarah Steelman testified that the terror-free Missouri Investment Trust has outperformed the benchmark for core international investment funds since she initiated the new strategy seven months ago.