Press Conference With Senator Evan Bayh; Senator Joseph Lieberman; Senator Mary Landrieu; Senator Benjamin Cardin; Senator Charles Schumer; Senator Jon Kyl; Senator Jim Risch; Senator John Thune

Press Conference

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SEN. BAYH: Thank you for joining us today. We may have some other colleagues coming in, but in the interest of being timely, we'll go ahead and get started.

I'm pleased today to be joined by my colleagues. And at a time when the Senate is still struggling to get Democrats and Republicans to work together to meet the challenges that face our country, on this particular issue, we've succeeded in doing that.

We have fully one-quarter of the Senate is co-sponsoring this legislation, and the people who will be gathering here today or at least who have been scheduled to gather here today represent about an equal number of Democrats and Republicans, so there is strong bipartisan support for doing something about Iran's drive to achieve a nuclear weapon.

One of the reasons we've been able to achieve that broad bipartisan support is because of the critical importance of this issue. If events continue to go as they are currently going, at some point, during the next two to four years, Iran will have a nuclear weapon. That will be deeply destabilizing to the national security interests of the United States, to the country of Israel, and, indeed, to the entire world.

This gives us our best opportunity to avoid that outcome without the resort to military force which, itself, would have some very grave complications. This is a uniquely vulnerable moment for the nation of Iran. The price of oil is now about $50 or a little below. We assess that their budget does not work unless the price of oil is about $80 a barrel.

So Iran is facing great financial pressures right now. They also currently have to import about 40 percent of their refined petroleum products, particularly, gasoline. They are working to try and increase their refining capacity so at some point in the future they might not be as vulnerable to sanctions of this type as they currently are.

So if we act today, we maximize the chances of bringing financial and economic pressure to bear upon the government of Iran to forego their drive for a nuclear weapon. That is much preferable to the consequences of letting them have a nuclear weapon and trying to manage it or resorting to military force to trying to prevent that.

Finally, let me say that we are attempting to strengthen the president's hand in his outreach to Iran. It is vitally important that they know that there will be grave consequences and meaningful sanctions if they do not agree to forego their drive for a nuclear weapon. This will give the president a very powerful tool to use in those negotiations to try and get the Iranians to do the right thing.

So just in brief summary again, we face a very serious threat to the national security interests of the United States and the rest of the world.

If events continue to unfold as they are, that threat will be realized. This step gives us our best opportunity to do something about that, short of resort to military force and that's why I'm so pleased that our colleagues have gathered with me here today to take this step.

Let me turn to Senator Kyl from Arizona.

Jon, it's been a pleasure working with you on this. I'm grateful for your leadership. I know you care deeply about this issue, and we'd love to hear your thoughts today.

SEN. KYL: Thank you, Evan.

This is, as Senator Bayh said, one of those occasions to which it's a great pleasure to work across the aisle and with each other on a common problem, which Senator Bayh well laid out.

Let me describe the concept of the legislation. There are already sanctions that can be applied to companies that do business with Iran in different circumstances. This is stronger and more precise.

As Senator Bayh said, Iran has a bit of a problem in relying on its petroleum-based economy and it's exacerbated by the fact that it doesn't have the refining capacity to produce all of the refined gasoline that is used by its citizens, in fact, about 40 percent of the needs for gasoline are not satisfied within the country.

This represents an opportunity for the president and for us to give him an additional very important tool. In effect, what we're saying to the few companies in the world who provide this refined gasoline to Iran: You can either do business in our $13 trillion economy with us or you can do business with Iran, with its $250 billion economy, but you can't do both.

We will not allow you to do business in the United States or through our banking system if you continue to either sell this refined gasoline to Iran or provide refining capacity, enhanced capacity through equipment and other means for it to enhance its -- its refineries.

That is a tool that the president will have. It's the strongest sanction that will have been created to date, and we believe that, since all countries act in what they perceive to be their best interests and we give credit to the Iranian leadership for making decisions based upon what it believes are in its best interests, that there will come a point in time when it cannot continue to ignore the difficulties that it -- that the people of its country would face if it continues to engage in the kind of activity that it does.

And that's why this kind of sanction could change the way that the Iranian leadership deals with questions such as the acquisition of a nuclear capability and maybe I should introduce the -- the ultimate in the non-Republican, non-Democrat approach to this, because of his great independence, but also nobody in the Senate has a longer working history on problems such as this than our good friend and colleague, Joe Lieberman.

Joe?

SEN. LIEBERMAN: Thank you. Thanks, Jon. That was very gracious of you.

I'm delighted to have joined with all my colleagues here in introducing this legislation today. This is important legislation, introduced at a critical time, whose consequences for the people of America, Iran, Israel, the Arab world are going to be quite serious, and I think you've got to view the introduction of this legislation in the context of where we are today.

This legislation has a purpose: It is to empower President Obama, who has decided to engage with Iran in an attempt to stop their nuclear weapons program, by providing him with the explicit authority to target Iran's Achilles' economic heel, which is its dependence on imports of refined petroleum products, most notably gasoline.

During last year's election, President Obama several times expressed interest in using Iran's dependence on imports of refined petroleum as leverage in the nuclear standoff that we have with them. Unfortunately, under current law, the president's authority to do so is quite ambiguous.

This legislation will eliminate that ambiguity by giving the president the ability to sanction foreign firms that are involved in the sale of gasoline and other refined petroleum products to Iran or that provide insurance or shipping for the delivery of those products to Iran or that assist Iran in maintaining its own refineries. So it's quite broad.

In effect, we are giving the president a powerful new weapon to use in the negotiations with Iran, but it is up to him to decide when, where and against whom to use it.

By empowering the president in this way at this moment when he has decided to begin a new engagement with Iran, we are hoping to make it more likely that that diplomatic engagement with the Iranians will succeed and that they will peacefully abandon their nuclear ambitions because engagement cannot be an open-ended process.

Engagement is a tactic. It's not a strategy. This engagement has to be part of a broader strategy if it's going to work that has goals and schedules and teeth, and this legislation, clearly, provides those teeth.

I want to echo my colleagues and say how proud I am of the breadth and width of this bipartisan coalition. This is a coalition that includes not only Democrats and Republicans but, I'd say, probably by self-description, some of the Senate's most liberal and conservative members.

Many of the members of this coalition, co-sponsors of the bill don't see eye to eye on many matters and that is precisely the point. In coming together behind this legislation, our coalition sends an unambiguous message of unity, strength and resolve from America to Iran and the rest of the world. It is a message that whatever difference may divide us on other issues, they are not as important as what unites us, which is our shared, strong commitment as Americans to stop Iran from going nuclear.

Thank you very much.

SEN. CARDIN: Ben Cardin. Proud to be a part of this coalition.

Let me first thank Senator Bayh and Senator Collins and Senator Lieberman for bringing us together and getting this coalition together in support of this extremely important bill, as been pointed out.

If Iran becomes a nuclear weapons power, it's a game changer in the Middle East and it would be very destabilizing to U.S. goals of trying to bring about a much more stable Middle East. The best way to proceed is to give the president the tools he needs so that sanctions can work and if sanctions are going to work, you have to deal with Iran's internal needs for refining petroleum products and that's exactly what this bill does. It gives the United States the tool it needs so that we can have a maximum opportunity for sanctions to work.

I'm proud to be part of this coalition. I think it's an extremely important bill. I hope we can get it passed quickly.

SEN. RISCH: My comments can be very, very brief because I don't want to be repetitive, but I'd want to be here today to be a part of this very, very bipartisan effort. This is a game changer. If Iran is -- does have a nuclear weapon, it changes the whole dynamic in the Middle East and then you have countries around Iran saying now what do I do.

Do I head down this pathway, also? We live in a dangerous world. The thought that Iran would have a nuclear weapon only makes the world more dangerous. So I will do everything I can to work with my colleagues not only here but others to try to get this legislation passed. I think it's as important a piece of legislation as we'll consider this year, certainly, in the foreign policy arena.

So I'm honored to be here today, honored to be a part of the coalition that's working to get this done.

Thank you.

SEN. LANDRIEU: Thank you. I, too, am proud to join my colleagues in this effort and I do not stand here lightly given that I represent a state and, in large measure, a region that refines most of the petroleum in this country that is both used in our country and exported around the world.

But I do think that this is an important and necessary step to take. I agree with President Obama's call that diplomacy and very strong tools associated -- sharp and strong tools -- associated with diplomacy should always be our first step, and I believe that those tools need to be sharpened today.

So with that, I'm proud to support this effort, and, hopefully, we can be successful.

SEN. THUNE: Well, I think that our posture with -- in dealing with Iran has sort of been the equivalent of going into a conflict or a fight with one hand tied behind your back, and what this essentially does, in my view, is opens up the playbook, gives the administration the tools that they need to be all-in when it comes to economic sanctions.

We have tried other things, but the real weakness with Iran -- their vulnerability that we have an opportunity to exploit -- is their dependence upon refined gasoline for imports, and Evan and I worked on a piece of legislation in the last Congress on this. This is more explicit, has tougher -- more -- more teeth in it, in terms of the tools that are available to the administration and we believe the administration ought to have all the tools possible to try and achieve, short of military action, an outcome that would end Iran's quest for nuclear capability, which we know inevitably would be transferred or given to terrorist nations that would target Israel, target our other allies, and, as has already been pointed out, lead to proliferation of nuclear weapons in that part of the world.

So this is something that we need to do. I think what you see here today is broad bipartisan support at the congressional level for -- for moving forward with this legislation and giving the administration the tools that they need to -- to fight this battle effectively. So I'm happy to be a part of it.

SEN. BAYH: Senator Schumer, you're our clean-up batter today.

SEN. SCHUMER: Batting seventh, and I'm proud to --

SEN. BAYH: Center of our line-up.

SEN. SCHUMER: I'm proud to be here. I want to salute Evan Bayh, Jon Kyl, Joe Lieberman for putting together this really focused piece of legislation that I think will have real effect.

Bottom line: It allows us to put our finger right on the pressure point where Iran is the weakest and that is gasoline. We've all known that the best way to get Iran to come to the table is sort of a carrot and a stick, which is my judgment.

Carrot, nothing wrong with talking to them, but stick. Talking alone isn't going to solve this problem and telling Iran that there's going to be real economic consequences to her actions will make a real difference. I believe, too, we have to continue a course to try and bring the Russians onboard. If we could bring the Russians onboard, we could sort of complete the circle around Iran and they would have no choice, but this legislation is really -- I think it's one of the best and most important steps that we could take to stopping Iran from going nuclear and I'm proud to join.

SEN. BAYH: Questions? Yes? Oh, go ahead.

Q (Off mike.) What are the new sanctions?

SEN. BAYH: The new sanctions include everything up to and including prohibiting these entities from doing business in the United States, including those who finance shipments of petroleum into Iran, ship it, insure it, insure it, all those sorts of things.

We've had some success in the financial arena, cutting off Iran's banks from the financial -- the global financial system in Europe, for example, by threatening to sanctions some European financial institutions from their ability to have correspondent relationships in the United States, so this sort of builds on that platform, but it would be everything from fines up to and including actually prohibiting entities that facilitate the shipment of refined petroleum products into Iran from doing business in the United States of America.

Q (Off mike.) Currently, the current sanctions are -- (inaudible) -- this would expand it to prohibit them -- (inaudible) --

SEN. BAYH: Correct.

SEN. LIEBERMAN: It -- it also makes clear -- these -- these are targeted sanctions, particularly targeted at foreign companies that either export refined petroleum product gasoline into Iran, ship it, insure the shipments -- it's very much broader and explicit than in the current law -- and also help in maintaining --

SEN. KYL: It expands it.

SEN. LIEBERMAN: -- yes, also help maintain the refineries. Also, as Jon reminds me, the bill's focused not just on non-U.S. firms, but on the foreign subsidiaries of U.S. firms. So there's no way for American companies to get around -- around this.

So this is quite powerful. It puts a very strong weapon in the hands of the president, if -- if he's unhappy with the progress being made at the negotiating table with the Iranians.

Q (Off mike.) Dennis Ross is currently in the Middle East negotiating a -- a comprehensive -- (inaudible) -- with Europe about this, a comprehensive international --- (inaudible) -- effort to isolate Iran, and, you know, one thing that -- the Europeans have embraced some of the financial sector sanctions. They're kind of spooked by the business sector sanctions. Why put this out before Dennis Ross has -- has finally put together his sanctions package, the Obama administration has put together its sanctions -- (inaudible) --

SEN. BAYH: Secretary of State Clinton -- it was either today or yesterday -- said that the Iranians should expect crippling sanctions, to use her phrase, if they are not forthcoming in the negotiations. So having a deadline, having real consequences that aren't just theoretical but will have teeth is essential for maximizing the chances that the administration's diplomacy will work.

Secretary of State Clinton sees it that way, so I would assume that Dennis Ross would see it that way as well.

Q (Off mike.) Russia being an important partner.

SEN. LIEBERMAN: Well, very briefly, obviously, we're an independent branch of government, and remember what we're doing here is not mandating but authorizing the president to use this, giving him some authority to use this.

I will tell you that I specifically informed Ambassador Dennis Ross that we were going to introduce this legislation and it was a private conversation, but I don't want to reveal too much, but I will tell you he didn't say don't. So I think that -- we've even sent him a copy of it.

So I think that -- this is a -- we're all on the same side here, and I think this strengthens the hand of Ambassador Ross and President Obama rather than weaken it because it shows our seriousness.

Q (Off mike.)

SEN. BAYH: Could I just interject one thing? If the financial arena, when push came to shove and there was a prospect of European financial entities, perhaps, being denied access to the U.S. financial system, they chose to cooperate in terms of cracking down to Iran. So there's a useful analogy here that is applicable to this area.

Q : (Off mike.) cutting off gasoline -- (inaudible) -- or would it be the other way around -- (inaudible) --

SEN. BAYH: Well, they probably will, and I think, as Senator Schumer pointed out, one must be realistic about the prospects for convincing Iran to change their course of behavior, but we need to try because the alternative of allowing events to simply run their course will mean the Iranian government will have a nuclear weapon. Estimates vary, but some point between, you know, the next year to four or five years.

And that would be harmful not only to our interests and Israel's interests and the interest of other countries in the region, but ultimately to the people of Iran's interest. So we can only make our best judgment. Obviously, the government of Iran will try and spin that or use it for public relations value however they might, but they could have some real serious financial and economic consequences if these steps are undertaken.

Q (Off mike.)

SEN. SCHUMER: The greatest pressure that has come from the people against the Iranian government is when economic times are not that good.

Q Give me an example of that.

SEN. SCHUMER: It happened a few years ago when we cut off --

SEN. BAYH: When they started rationing gasoline, I think there were some street disturbances at protests. So, look, of course, they'll try and explain it away, but, you know, at the end of the day, as I think Senator Kyl was pointing out, nation states tend to pursue their interests.

When interests of nations diverge, we have to seek both allies and leverage. This is the best leverage we have to try and convince Iran to pursue their interests in a way other than achieving -- than acquiring a nuclear weapon.

Q (Off mike.) Senator, have you talked with Senator Dodd about this bill -- (inaudible) --

SEN. LIEBERMAN: We have talked generally with Senator Dodd about the bill. The bill will go, we expect, to the Banking Committee and I'd leave the rest to Senator Dodd, but I would say we generally got an encouraging response from him.

Q (Off mike.)

SEN. KYL: I do. And I believe that our Republican conference will unite behind such an effort. I just returned from Pakistan, and the situation there is deteriorating. The reports are accurate, and, therefore, it may not be soon enough for us to pass the supplemental appropriation bill and, in the regular order, get some of the money -- there's about a billion and a half dollars -- for a variety of purposes that would go to Pakistan in that bill.

It may be appropriate -- and I believe the administration is looking right now at pulling a small part of that money out, somewhere between $200 million and $400 million, for both counterinsurgency and economic assistance that we could pass really quickly, in just a matter of days and get that money out the door to assist in the emergency situation that faces Pakistan right now.

If we were to wait until roughly close to the 1st of July, it could be too little, too late.

Q (Off mike. ) Democratic leadership view on that?

SEN. SCHUMER: Well, we haven't had a leadership meeting, but I think -- certainly I would be strongly supportive, and I believe the Democratic leadership would be strongly supportive.

Bottom line with Pakistan: It's -- it is terribly worrisome. It's probably the place that most people worry about the most right now and you need both. You need military action to prevent terrorism, and at the same time you need to provide the civilian population with some form of relief, and I think both would be kindly regarded by the Democrats in the Senate.

(Cross talk.)

Q (Off mike) -- target Iran -- (inaudible) -- this tack has been tried before -- (inaudible) -- there were provisions for targeting companies who dealt with the Iran -- Iran energy sector -- sector, but that's never been used.

Every single private company has violated that, the terms of that, so a waiver has been given. So what -- is this -- I don't understand. This seems to be just a threat for foreign companies that -- why should they -- why should they take it seriously if they know -- (inaudible) --

SEN. BAYH: It -- it ultimately will depend upon the president's will to enforce the provisions -- enforce the tools that we're giving him. The clock has ticked a long way since the previous provisions were enacted.

We are now reaching the critical moment, that if we are going to dissuade Iran from continuing to pursue this path -- which, to get back to your question, this can all be avoided if they simply will agree to a civilian nuclear power and to forego with international oversight and that sort of thing, so the Iranian people would not have to bear the consequences. This will only happen if Iran flouts world opinion and continues to pursue what everyone agrees will be a -- a nuclear weapon path.

So time is of the essence here. This is a unique moment, with the price of oil being low and with Iran being more economically vulnerable. They have not yet been able to increase their refining capacity, so these sanctions are more likely to work. It's more difficult for our allies to live in -- in denial, because they've seen the progress that Iran is making inexorably toward achieving this goal, and so it makes the sanctions more likely to be effective.

But you're correct in observing that it ultimately comes down to our political will in enforcing them, but as I think Senator Lieberman pointed out, and as Secretary of State Clinton here stated either today or yesterday, Iran should expect -- they support -- and to use her word -- crippling sanctions, if Iran does not do the right thing.

SEN. LIEBERMAN: Let me add something to that. Of course, I agree with everything Evan has said. This is -- this is not only empowering the president of the United States in negotiations whose status he has raised up now to go to those negotiations with teeth, with -- with -- with a stick, as well as a carrot, but I hope it also sends a message to those foreign companies or subsidiaries, foreign subsidiaries of American companies that are exporting refined petroleum product into Iran, which is -- this is not going to be an easy business to be in, in the next chapter of history and maybe you're contributing to a more insecure world by the sales to Iran for -- for -- for everybody in the Middle East. We haven't said it, but, you know, I was in the Middle East a couple of months ago. I will not surprise anyone here if I tell you that the anxiety about the Iranian nuclear program in the Arab world is as great as it is in Israel and in Washington.

So the -- and the only -- the evidence I present that -- that this more than a hope by me is that the program of economic sanctions that has been carried out very creatively and aggressively through the Treasury Department of the United States under existing law has had some substantial effect in convincing companies -- this is not in petroleum product, but in other areas of finance, with -- or insurance with -- doing business with Iran, that it -- it's not a good business to be in. It's not a secure business to be in.

And so I suppose it's fair to say, as I said earlier, that I hope this really extraordinary -- it was a great moment here and I'm back with the -- we had a real all-of-God's-children in the Senate coalition up here. It sends a message of unity not only to Iran, but I hope it sends a message of American determination and unity to the companies that are exporting refined petroleum product or --

SEN. BAYH: Thank you.

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