NEW YORK, Dec. 31, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- AJC welcomed the New Year's Eve signing by President Obama of legislation that imposes tough new financial sanctions on Iran in an intensified effort to halt its illicit nuclear program.
(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20100816/AJCLOGO )
"By signing into law a measure that will make financial transactions with Iran significantly more difficult, President Obama has taken an important step in ratcheting up the price for Iran's defiance of the international community," said AJC Executive Director David Harris.
"With overwhelming Congressional support -- including the unanimous endorsement by the Senate of the Menendez-Kirk amendment -- U.S. leadership in confronting the menace of a nuclear Iran to regional and global security has been fortified."
The new Iran sanctions, including rules barring transactions with the Central Bank of Iran and with foreign entities engaging in such transactions, are contained in the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012.
"Iran now threatens to close the Strait of Hormuz, in an effort to cripple energy supplies and deal a blow to the global economy," said Harris. "Moreover, it tramples on the rights of its own people, exemplified by the rigged elections of 2009 and the harsh crackdown on the protests that followed. Now imagine the same regime with nuclear weapons. It would be nothing short of a nightmare. That's why this latest U.S. effort becomes so important in sending a clear message of American resolve."
For well over a decade, AJC has been a consistent voice in alerting the world to the profound danger of Iran's quest for nuclear-weapons capability and the means to deliver them.
SOURCE AJC
