Burns: “Sanctions Have Hindered Iran’s Development of a Nuclear Weapons Capability”

David Streeter — December 1, 2010 – 5:17 pm | Barack Obama | Foreign Policy | Iran | Terrorism Comments (0) Add a comment

Reuters reported that the global sanctions effort against Iran’s nuclear program, spearheaded by President Barack Obama, is hindering the country’s ability to produce nuclear weapons because of the sanctions’ impact on Iran’s economy.

According to Reuters:

As a result of Iran’s failure to stop enriching uranium despite repeated U.N. Security Council resolutions demanding that it do so, international and bilateral sanctions have been imposed on Tehran that U.S. officials say are now biting.

Iran is finding it increasingly difficult to access the financial services it needs to run its economy and may lose up to $60 billion in energy investments due to global sanctions, U.S. officials said on Wednesday.

Iran is the world’s fifth-largest oil exporter and its petroleum sector is estimated to account for more than four-fifths of government revenues. Lower investment could constrain its ability to produce and export oil.

‘With great regularity, major companies are announcing that they have curtailed or completely pulled out of business dealings with Iran,’ Stuart Levey, U.S. Treasury Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, told the House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Levey said the sanctions were restricting Iran’s access to dollars and were the likely cause of a nearly 20 percent plunge in Iran’s rial currency in September, prompting weeks of intervention from Iran’s central bank to stabilize it.

[Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs William] Burns told lawmakers Iran may lose $50 billion to $60 billion in potential energy investments, along with critical technology and know-how from major international companies.

‘Sanctions have hindered Iran’s development of a nuclear weapons capability and the means to deliver them, while making it harder for Iran to continue its destabilizing activities in the region,’ Burns said in prepared remarks.

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