Dozens of US senators have issued a bipartisan call to President Joe Biden to activate the authorities’ powers to seize Iranian oil assets in an executive program they say has been neglected.
In a letter to Biden, council members noted that despite the sanctions in place, Iran’s oil exports jumped 35% last year, with proceeds being used “to attack US citizens, US military personnel and US allies,” the report said.
Senators led by Republican Jony Ernst of Iowa and Democrat Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, both from the Armed Services Committee, specifically complained that the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Security Investigation was being restricted due to asset forfeiture due to lack of funds. .
In a letter sent last week, the senators noted that since the launch of the program in question in 2019, the office has seized about $228 million worth of Iranian crude oil and fuel oil associated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which the United States has designated as a terrorist organization.
They said the office had not recently received enough funds to carry out the confiscation of Iranian oil.
And they continued in the letter: “It is unacceptable to undermine the US government program that makes the United States and its allies safer, provides funds for the treatment of victims of terrorism, and generates income for the United States in a cost-effective manner.”
Source: Associated Press
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