USraeli lawmakers call for immediate Iran sanctions

Top Republican members of the US House of Representatives have called for tough and immediate sanctions on Iran's energy sector.

The lawmakers said the US should not wait until the outcome of October 1 talks on Tehran's nuclear program to impose new sanctions against the country.

"The time is now for Congress to enact the strongest possible sanctions against the regime in Iran," said Representative Mike Pence, the number three Republican in the House.

Pence linked the move to the upcoming visit of the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to the UN General Assembly next week and said Obama's Democratic allies, should act this week before the pending visit of President Ahmadinejad.

The Iran Refined Petroleum Sanctions Act introduced in late April would effectively bar any firm that sells refined petroleum to Iran or facilitates such sales from doing business in the US.

This is while the Democratic Representative Howard Berman, the bill's lead author and chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has said he would give Obama's approach time and wait until the end of September.

Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council--the US, Britain, Russia, France and China--plus Germany (P5+1) will hold the latest round of talks on Tehran's nuclear program on October 1. PressTV

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