Be tough in seizing Iran oil, bipartisan senators urge Biden

Adozen senators are making a bipartisan appeal to President Joe Biden to reinvigorate the power of US authorities to seize Iranian oil assets under an enforcement program they say has been allowed to languish.

Despite existing sanctions, Iranian oil exports jumped 35 per cent last year and proceeds are being used to sponsor attacks on US citizens and service members as well as allies, the senators said in a letter to the president.

Specifically, the senators, led by Republican Joni Ernst of Iowa and Democrat Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut — both from the Armed Services Committee — complain that the Homeland Security Department’s security investigations office has been constrained in seizure operations by lack of money.

Since the enforcement program started in 2019, the office has seized nearly USD 228 million in Iranian crude and fuel oil linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, designated as a terrorist organization by the US, the senators said in the letter sent this past week.

But they said the office has not recently been given money that is available under the Treasury Forfeiture Fund to conduct seizures of Iranian oil.

“It is unacceptable that a US government program, which makes the United States and its allies safer, provides funds to remediate the victims of terrorism, and generates income for the United States in a cost-effective manner, has been allowed to languish,” the letter says.

The push is coming from a diverse group of senators, among them Republicans Ted Cruz of Texas and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, and Democrats Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Ron Wyden of Oregon. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.