In Letter, Ros-Lehtinen Urges President Obama to Sanction Companies Tied to Iran's Revolutionary Guards

Statement

U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, today sent a letter to President Obama urging him to designate the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) and National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC) as proxies of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) following the passage of the Iran Threat Reduction and Syria Human Rights Act (HR 1905) by both the House and Senate. The letter, which was signed by more than 200 Members of the House from both sides of the aisle, calls on President Obama and his Administration to recognize the collusion of these companies with the IRGC and their ability to provide the Iranian regime with critical resources.

"As Iran moves rapidly toward acquiring a nuclear weapons capability, and the relationship between the IRGC, and NITC and NIOC becomes more apparent, the time is now to designate these entities accordingly and deny them the ability to provide critical resources to the regime.

"In order to effectively sanction the Iranian regime, we must target the companies that feed the Revolutionary Guard Corps. These tough new sanctions will deny the Iranian regime the ability to repatriate oil sales, therefore depriving them of critical funds. I encourage the President to quickly sign the Iran Threat Reduction and Syria Human Rights Act and designate the NIOC and NITC as appendages of Iran's Revolutionary Guard. There is no time to waste, and no room for error."

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