US House Passes Bill to Tighten Economic Pressure on Iran Over Nuclear Program

The US House of Representatives passed the Iran Freedom Support Act on Thursday by voice vote, aiming to increase economic pressure on Tehran and persuade it to halt its nuclear activities.

Republican Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who sponsored the legislation, said the measure would cut off Iran's access to resources needed to develop nuclear weapons and fund terrorism. Democrat Tom Lantos, senior member of the House International Affairs Committee, was a prominent co-supporter of the bill.

Lantos warned that failing to use available economic and diplomatic tools could leave the world facing a regime that combines fundamentalism, terrorism, and nuclear weapons capability.

Iran had already missed a 31 August deadline imposed by the UN Security Council to suspend uranium enrichment and reprocessing activities. Western governments suspect those activities mask a weapons development program, a charge Tehran rejects, insisting its nuclear work is aimed solely at generating electricity.

Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this wire report, first published in September 2006, in its own words.