Special to WorldTribune.com

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama has ordered an easing of U.S. sanctions on Iran ahead of any nuclear agreement.

Congressional sources said Obama has diminished U.S. sanctions on Iran over the last five months. They said numerous sanctions were suspended or lifted with the election of President Hassan Rowhani without informing Congress.

“The first step was to simply stop designating those eligible for sanctions,” a House staffer said. “The next step was to ease existing sanctions, especially on [Iranian] non-military units.”

The sources said the easing of sanctions marked Obama’s rapprochement policy toward Iran. They said the new policy has enabled Iran to maintain its crude oil exports.

“My concern here is that we seem to want the deal almost more than the Iranians,” Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Sen. Robert Menendez said.

The U.S. news website Daily Beast said the Obama policy has suspended
most of the work of the Treasury Department, responsible for designating
sanctions on Iran and its partners. The online publication said Treasury
issued only two designation notices since Rowhani was elected in June 2013.

“The orders to stop the designations came from the White House and State
Department,” the staffer said. “This has not gone down well in Treasury.”

The administration has also pressured Congress to suspend plans for new
sanctions legislation against Iran. The sources said the White House effort
has encountered resistance from both Democrats and Republicans, particularly
those in the defense and foreign affairs committees.

“I urge the White House and the Senate to learn from the lessons of the
past and not offer sanctions relief in return for the false hopes and empty
promises of the Iranian regime,” Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, chairwoman of the
House Middle East and North Africa Subcommittee, said. “Instead, new rounds
of sanctions must be implemented to gain further leverage because any
misstep in calculations at this juncture will have devastating and
irreversible consequences that will be difficult to correct retroactively.”

On Nov. 12, the White House warned that additional sanctions on Iran
would mean war with the United States. White House press secretary Jay
Carney, in remarks meant to intensify pressure on Congress, said sanctions
would end the prospect of any diplomatic solution to Iran’s crisis.

“The American people do not want a march to war,” Carney said. “It is
important to understand that if pursuing a resolution diplomatically is
disallowed or ruled out, what options then do we and our allies have to
prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon?”

Still, the Senate Banking Committee has agreed to delay any vote on
sanctions legislation until a briefing by Secretary of State John Kerry on
Nov. 13. The sources said Kerry was expected to brief the committee on the
P5+1 talks in Geneva that almost led to an agreement with Teheran.

“The secretary will be clear that putting new sanctions in place would
be a mistake,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said on Nov. 12. “We
are still determining if there’s a diplomatic path forward. What we are
asking for right now is a pause, a temporary pause, in sanctions.”

  Hassan Rowhani. Sen. Robert Menendez, Jay Carney, Obama said to suspend Iran sanctions without informing Congress, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Senate Banking Committee