Live-blogging: Senate hearing on Iran sanctions

10:44 a.m.: I'm not getting anything out of this hearing. The witnesses are not going to go into much detail in a public hearing, and the senators don't know much about Iran.

I'll update if anything interesting happens, but for now, consider the live blog done...

10:40 a.m.: Shelby wants to know if an Iranian nuclear weapon would be "transferred to terrorists." I have to say, when it comes to Iran's nuclear program, this isn't one of my big concerns. The weapon would be pretty quickly traced back to Iran, which would then face a massive retaliation.

10:38 a.m.: Steinberg points out that there's a difference between unilateral U.S. sanctions and international sanctions. He suggests that the former will be poorly received by the Iranian public. (As if they'll endorse international sanctions?)

10:32 a.m.: James Steinberg, the deputy secretary of state, is talking about "milestones" for Iran -- essentially goals the U.S. wants Iran to achieve in order to avoid sanctions. He said the two main benchmarks are allowing the IAEA full access to the Qom facility on Oct. 25, and agreeing (not just in principle) to ship uranium to Russia for further enrichment.

10:18 a.m.: The witnesses are giving their opening statements, and frankly they've said nothing of interest yet.

10:02 a.m.: Sensible proposal from Schumer: He wants to send more inspectors to the U.A.E. to enforce sanctions on Iran. You'll remember the UAE recently intercepted a shipment of North Korean weapons bound for Iran.

9:59 a.m.: Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) says economic sanctions are "the most effective" means of checking "Iran's nuclear ambitions." I'd like to see some data to back up this claim.

9:53 a.m.: Over-under on the first Hitler/Nazi Germany reference? I give it 45 minutes.

9:49 a.m.: Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kansas) is talking about a new bill he introduced that creates a divestiture program. It would allow state and local governments to divest from businesses in Iran, or businesses that do business with Iran.

Brownback says it's modeled on the divestiture programs created for Sudan and South Africa.

9:47 a.m.: Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) just said he prefers economic sanctions to "the alternative, which we may have to pursue in the future." I love how casually these guys talk about bombing another country.

9:45 a.m.: More opening statements. Everyone thinks dialogue shouldn't be open-ended."

9:35 a.m.: Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), the committee chairman, just cited this weekend's NYT report as "proof" that Iran is closing in on a nuclear weapon. The report, of course, was full of holes.

Original post: The U.S. Senate Banking committee is meeting this morning to discuss possible economic sanctions on Iran. Hearing's supposed to start at 9:30 a.m., though it's running a little late. We'll have live coverage.

No Comments