U.S. Senators call to punish Turkish and Chinese firms cooperating with Iran

PanARMENIAN.Net - The United States should punish Turkish and Chinese firms reportedly providing Iran with refined petroleum products, two senior U.S. senators urged Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday, AFP reported.

Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer and Republican Senator Jon Kyl, his party's number-two leader in the chamber, called on Clinton in a letter to "promptly" enforce a U.S. law aimed at denying Iran access to world gasoline markets.

The United States should "penalize those companies that are continuing to supply Iran with refined petroleum products" since President Barack Obama signed the law in July, they wrote. "According to press reports, these would include Turkey's Tupras, and China's Sinopec, National Petroleum Corporation, CNPC, and Zhuhai Zhenrong," said Kyl and Schumer, whose offices made the letter public.

The lawmakers said Iran aimed to use such outreach as it has in the past to gain "a reprieve from sanctions," only to stymie Washington and its partners later. "We must urge our allies to resist any false entreaty to negotiate from Iran. You will have the full support of the Congress in doing all that's necessary to prevent a nuclear armed Iran," they said.

"The window to stop the Iranian regime from obtaining a nuclear weapons capability through sanctions is rapidly closing," they warned. Tehran denies it seeks nuclear weapons and that its atomic energy program is for purely civilian purposes.

Iran, Brazil and Turkey issued a joint fuel swap declaration on May 17, based on which Tehran agreed to exchange 1,200 kg of its low-enriched uranium on Turkish soil with fuel for its Tehran research reactor.