US Bill proposes to penalise RIL for doing business with Iran

Asking India’s Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) and other energy firms doing trade with Iran to choose either Teheran or Washington, a number of US senators have moved a Bill aimed at penalising such companies.

“We know who these companies are — Shell, Vitol, BP and Reliance — and we need to give them a choice: You can do business with Iran’s $250 billion economy or our $13 trillion economy, but not both,” said Senator Jon Kyl, part of the bipartisan coalition of 25 senators that introduced the Bill.

The senators have sought to strengthen President Barack Obama’s authority for stopping Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons through their proposed legislation, which targets foreign companies that sell petrol or other refined petroleum products to Iran.

The legislation also authorises the president to impose stronger penalties on these firms, including a ban on conducting business in the US.

The legislation, introduced in the US Senate yesterday, comes within days of another resolution introduced in the House of Representatives on April 21 to expand economic sanctions against Iran.

The new Bills seek to make it a policy of the US to encourage foreign governments “to direct state-owned entities to cease all investment in Iran’s energy sector and all exports of refined petroleum resources to Iran”.

Both Bills have been referred to various House and Senate committees.

Senator Mike Johanns, who signed as a co-sponsor, said the legislation, if passed, would give the president authority to put in place stronger sanctions on persons and businesses that help Iran import refined petroleum or develop its resources.

“As Iran is forced to import as much as 40 per cent of its gasoline from abroad, these tougher sanctions could be used to achieve concessions from the Iranian government regarding its nuclear ambitions,” Johanns said.