Iran: Gasoline Sanctions Incoming?

Politico reports that House Democratic leaders are preparing to push through the Iran Refined Petroleum Sanctions Act (H.R. 2194). The bill’s author, Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.) announced, “I intend to pass the bill by the end of this year.” With 399 co-sponsors in the House, he may be able to keep his promise.

In response, Matt Duss comes out strongly against the proposed gasoline sanctions, observing “I don’t know of any analyst – right or left- who thinks that this legislation will be at all effective in changing Iran’s behavior.”  According to Duss, Iran is much less vulnerable to gasoline shortages than Capitol Hill thinks and China is unlikely to cooperate with the sanctions regime. Furthermore, the sanctions will hurt the wrong people. While the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps will be the least affected, the Green Movement has consistently rejected the sanctions because they will, in the words of Mir Hossein Mousavi, “impose agonies on a nation who suffers enough from miserable statesmen.”