U.S. waives sanctions against firms in Lybia and Iran
Iran-USA, Economics, 5/20/1998

During the G-8 summit, U.S. President Clinton announced that he will convince congress to waive the application of the D'Amato Law, which automatically punishes companies that invest more than $40 million (or $20 million in some cases) in any 12 months period in the development of petroleum-related business with Libya or Iran, against three companies that are involved with an Iranian petroleum development project. Iran said the decision to waive the sanctions proves the ineffectiveness of the 1996 law.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mahmoud Mohammadi said, "from the very beginning, we witnessed opposition of different countries" to the D'Amato Act, blasting the law as "contrary to the prevalent trend in today's world towards cooperation and partnership, thus lacking efficiency and failing to gain international support," IRNA reported.

The decision to waive the sanctions applies to the company Total (France), Gazprom (Russia), and Petronas (Malaysia) oil companies working in cooperation with the state-owned National Iranian Oil Company to develop the South Pars gas field in Iran.

In return for the waiver, Clinton said that the E.U. states had agreed to "step up efforts to prevent the transfer of technology" that could be used to develop weapons of mass destruction, adding that "they have agreed to work toward the ratification of all 11 counter-terrorism conventions."

In her statement on the waiver, U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said that the sanctions were "unsuccessful in stopping the South Pan deal" and that the decision to waive the sanctions "best serves our [U.S.] national interest." Although the D'Amato act calls for automatic sanctions, it allows the U.S. president to waive those sanctions in cases in which the waiver is found to serve U.S. interests.

Albright's statement added that despite the sanctions, U.S. policy toward Iran "has not changed."

The D'Amato act came under fire during the most recent summit in December 1997 of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, an organization of which Iran currently holds the chair, as "unilateralism and extraterritorial applications of domestic law." The OIC called for the international community to consider the law invalid.

Previous Stories:
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  Summit's deliberations concluded   (12/11/1997)
  US Iran, Libyan sanctions must be reviewed says EU   (9/30/1997)

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