Obama: Iran banking sanctions may be non-binding

ON Saturday, President Barack Obama signed into law H.R. 1540, the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012.

The bill included an amendment, which was authored by Sens. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Mark Kirk (R-IL) that would place crippling economic sanctions on financial institutions that do business with the Iran Central Bank. The amendment unanimously passed the U.S. Senate in December by a vote of 100-0.

Embedded in the president’s signing statement on the Defense Authorization Act, there was a portion devoted to the provisions on the Iran sanctions, which were under Section 1245 of the Defense Authorization Act:

“Sections 1235, 1242, and 1245 would interfere with my constitutional authority to conduct foreign relations by directing the Executive to take certain positions in negotiations or discussions with foreign governments. Like section 1244, should any application of these provisions conflict with my constitutional authorities, I will treat the provisions as non-binding.”

If the president does view provisions of the Iran sanctions to be non-binding, it could cause some problems for him with the 100 senators who voted in favor of the Menendez-Kirk amendment

Sen. Kirk sent me a statement in response to the president’s signing statement where he indicated that “with the Senate voting 100-0 to cripple the Central Bank of Iran, the President’s signing statement hinting he will ignore parts of this law risks overwhelming opposition in the Congress.”

In addition, a senior Kirk aide noted that “Republicans and Democrats are committed to sanctions against the Central Bank of Iran. Is the President?”

When asked about the reference to the “non-binding” provisions, the White House Press Office referred me to additional background information that they sent around specifically highlighting the president’s view on the Iran-related provisions.

Particularly, the additional background emphasized that “the United States has already had sanctions on CBI and Iran’s oil industry for decades — so to make this legislation effective, the Obama Administration worked closely with Congress to shape the Iran provisions so that this new tool would increase the likelihood that other countries would stop doing business with CBI and Iran’s oil sector.”

At the conclusion of the statement, the White House noted that “the measure signed into law today can be a significant escalation in the pressure on Iran, and President Obama has made clear that the United States is committed to increasing the pressure on Iran until it changes course.”

While the White House background information does highlight its commitment to ratcheting up the pressure on Iran, it does not specifically respond to the aspect of the president’s signing statement where he would treat such provisions pertaining to Iran sanctions as “non-binding.”

JTA