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The U.S. House of Representatives has approved legislation to strengthen economic sanctions against Iran over its support for terrorist groups and refusal to halt uranium enrichment.

VOA’s Dan Robinson reports the measure passed with an overwhelming 397 to 16 vote, and contains stinging criticisms of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The Iran Counterproliferation Act is aimed at tightening the economic screws on Iran, through import and export sanctions, and steps to dissuade foreign governments and companies, including subsidiaries of U.S. companies, from investing in Iran’s energy sector. “Iran today faces a choice between a very big carrot and a very sharp stick,” said Tom Lantos, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “It is my hope that they will take the carrot, but today we are putting the stick in place.” Among other things, the legislation expresses a non-binding “sense of Congress” that the U.S. encourage other governments to direct state-owned companies and persuade private entities to stop all investment in Iran’s energy sector and exports of refined petroleum products to Iran.

Other non-binding provisions include a call to prohibit Iranian state banks from using the U.S. banking system, and support for divestment by U.S. federal and state and local pension plans from companies investing more than $20 million in Iran’s energy sector. Republican Ileana Ros-Lehtinen explains some of the binding changes, which include clarifications in and broadening the scope of existing law. “This legislation under consideration today builds upon that foundation, reiterates the application of the Iran Sanctions Act to parent companies of foreign subsidiaries that engage in activities that ISA would prohibit for U.S. entities,” she said. The measure would also prohibit U.S. nuclear cooperation agreements with countries assisting Iran’s nuclear program or transferring advanced conventional weapons or missiles to Iran. It directs the president to determine whether Iran’s Revolutionary Guards should be designated a terrorist organization, and placed on a list of proliferators of weapons of mass destruction, a step the Bush administration is pursuing.

A separate sanctions-related bill the House approved in August removed legal barriers to state and local divestment from companies investing more than $20 million in Iran’s energy sector, although the Senate has yet to pass its version of that legislation. In approving the measure, the House calls Iranian President Ahmadinejad’s persistent denials of the Holocaust a violation of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Lawmakers directed stinging criticisms at the Iranian leader, comparing him to 20th century tyrants and dictators such as Hitler and Stalin. “The history of the 20th century tells us that genocidal dictators say what they will do and then do what they said,” said Republicans Mark Kirk. Republican Mike Pence said,”This is a man who is on a mis-guided mission, he is a dangerous and deluded leader and we ignore his intents at our peril. “When Mr. Ahmadinejad says he wants to wipe Israel off the face of the earth and do all kinds of other countless horrific things, he means it,” Democrat Eliot Engel said. In noting that the latest legislation does not authorize use of military force against Iran, House lawmakers nonetheless describe the prospect of Iran achieving nuclear arms as a grave threat to the United States and its allies in the Middle East. They say the U.S. and its allies should do everything possible in diplomatic, political and economic means, to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear arms.

Source: Voice of America

Conservative politicians in Iran today began to align themselves with President Mahmud Ahmadinejad following his high-profile appearance at an academic conference in New York on September 24. 

Other Iranian reaction to the outspoken leader’s first day in the United States has been slow to emerge, but early signs suggest Ahmadinejad is unlikely to have bridged any divides.

Source: Radio Farda

When Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran’s combative president, provoked his latest controversy in New York this week by asserting that there were no homosexuals in his country, he may have been indulging in sophistry or just plain wishful thinking.

While Mr Ahmadinejad may want to believe that his Islamic society is exclusively non-gay, it is a belief undermined by the paradox that transsexuality and sex changes are tolerated and encouraged under Iran’s theocratic system.

Iran has between 15,000 and 20,000 transsexuals, according to official statistics, although unofficial estimates put the figure at up to 150,000. Iran carries out more gender change operations than any country in the world besides Thailand.

Sex changes have been legal since the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, spiritual leader of the 1979 Islamic revolution, passed a fatwa authorising them nearly 25 years ago. Whereas homosexuality is considered a sin, transsexuality is categorised as an illness subject to cure.

While the government seeks to keep its approval quiet, state support has increased since Mr Ahmadinejad took office in 2005. His government has begun providing grants of £2,250 for operations and further funding for hormone therapy. It is also proposing loans of up to £2,750 to allow those undergoing surgery to start their own businesses.

Maryam Khatoon Molkara, leader of the country’s main transsexual organisation, said some of those undergoing operations were gay rather than out-and-out transsexuals. “In Iran, transsexuals are part of the homosexual family. Is it possible that a phenomenon exists in the world but not in Iran? Transsexuality is a real disaster. It’s a one-way street. But if somebody wants to study, have a future and live like others they should go through this surgery.”

At Columbia University on Monday, Mr Ahmadinejad said homosexuality did not exist in Iran. “In Iran we don’t have homosexuals like in your country,” he told a questioner who accused his government of executing gay people. “In Iran we do not have this phenomenon. I don’t know who has told you that we have it.”

But Ms Molkara - who persuaded Khomeini to issue the fatwa on transsexuality - said his stance was inconsistent with the state’s sex-change policy. “They are saying homosexuality doesn’t exist, but they have never given me a chance to use my influence among transsexuals to prevent transsexuality from happening,” she said. “You could change the culture but the press and state TV are not allowed to write or say anything about transsexuality.”

The president’s claim was an eye-opener to Iranian human rights lawyers, who said the country’s Islamic legal code made draconian provision for homosexual offences by men and women.

It also outraged international gay rights activists, who recalled numerous executions under Iran’s sodomy laws. When legal officials announced the execution of 12 prisoners at Tehran’s Evin prison in July, they said the condemned included several “sodomites”. According to campaigners, several gay men have been caught up in a wave of hangings over the summer, although the claims are hard to verify.

There have been other high-profile cases in recent years, including that of two teenagers, Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni, who were publicly hanged in the north-eastern city of Mashhad in the summer of 2005 after admitting having sex. This summer, Pegah Emambakhsh, an Iranian lesbian, was granted permission to take her case to the court of appeal in Britain after claiming she would be in danger of execution if the Home Office implemented its ruling to deport her to Iran.

“Homosexuality is defined both for men and women in law. There is a section devoted to homosexuality,” Shirin Ebadi, the Nobel peace prize-winning human rights lawyer, said. “There is one part for homosexuality in men, which is called lavat [sodomy], which is punishable by death. There is another for women, which is called mosahegheh. If the crime is committed up to three times, the penalty is 100 lashes. On the fourth, it is execution.”

Source: The Guardian