NIAC, Coalition Urge Congress Not to Block Food and Medicine to Iran

NIAC joined the Friends Committee on National Legislation and nine other national organizations to urge the U.S. Congress to reject proposed sanctions legislation that would cut off humanitarian items to Iran, such as food, medicine, and family remittances.

NIAC joined the Friends Committee on National Legislation
and nine other national organizations to urge the U.S. Congress to reject
proposed sanctions legislation that would cut off humanitarian items to Iran,
such as food, medicine, and family remittances. The coalition letter reiterated opposition to indiscriminate
sanctions against Iran and emphasized that cutting off humanitarian trade of
food and medicine with Iran would lead to a humanitarian disaster.

Update 8/2/12: While Congress passed new sanctions legislation Wednesday, the measure to sanction
all Iranian financial institutions, and thus halt all
humanitarian trade and other transactions exempt from sanctions, was not adopted.

The letter is available below [PDF]:

Re: Keep Channels Open for Iranian Civilians to Access Food,
Medicine, and other Humanitarian Goods and Services

July 27, 2012

Dear Chairman Tim Johnson,

We strongly urge you to, at a minimum, preserve channels for financial
transactions to Iran for food, medicine, and other humanitarian purposes in
H.R. 1905, the Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Human Rights Act of 2012
(ISAHRA).

We are troubled by reports that efforts are underway in the conference
negotiations to quarantine the Iranian financial system wholesale, without an
exemption for humanitarian transactions. If Congress were to shut down the few
remaining channels that exist for humanitarian transactions to Iran, it would
create a catastrophe for millions of Iranians who depend on access to critical
lifesaving medicines which are only available in the international market.

In particular, we urge you to oppose the inclusion of measures supported by
Senator Mark Kirk and Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen which would sanction
all Iranian financial institutions, and have devastating effects on
humanitarian trade, noncommercial family remittances, and other transactions
that have been explicitly authorized by the U.S. government.

Your long-standing support for humanitarian transactions is commendable. We
appreciate your May
21 remarks, in which you noted that “it is not and has not been the
intent of U.S. policy to harm the Iranian people,” and that
“misinterpretation of U.S. law by foreign financial institutions should no
longer deny the people of Iran the benefit of OFAC-approved humanitarian
trade.”

However, if Congress prohibited every foreign bank from conducting any
transaction with any Iranian bank then the U.S. would be denying Iranians
access to humanitarian necessities. The U.S. Treasury Department’s licenses for
life-saving cancer treatment would be of no value to an Iranian patient who
cannot access the licensed medication due to U.S. sanctions against financial
institutions that would facilitate payments in Iran for that medication.

We are opposed to ISAHRA and other broad, indiscriminate sanctions
legislation, which has contributed to the dangerous escalation of U.S.-Iranian
tensions, and has already caused grave suffering for Iranian civilians. As top
military leaders and other national security experts have long pointed out,
robust, sustained diplomacy is the single most effective way to prevent a
disastrous war and a nuclear-armed Iran. For diplomacy to be effective, it is
imperative that the U.S. government put sanctions relief on the table in
exchange for serious, verifiable Iranian concessions to curb its nuclear
program.

At the same time, we recognize the importance of the humanitarian exemption
preserved in this legislation, which has been touted by the U.S.
businesses community and many humanitarian organizations, and strongly urge
you to reject the mounting pressure to further erode the humanitarian
exemption.

We thank you for your consideration and hope that you will ensure that
ISAHRA does not prohibit Iranian civilians from accessing food, medicine, and
other humanitarian goods and services.

Sincerely,

Center for Interfaith Engagement, Eastern Mennonite University
Conference of Major Superiors of Men
Friends Committee on National Legislation
Fellowship of Reconciliation
Just Foreign Policy
National Iranian American Council
New Internationalism Project, Institute for Policy Studies
Peace Action
Progressive Democrats of America
Project on Middle East Democracy
United Methodist Church, General Board of Church and Society