Special to WorldTribune.com

WASHINGTON — The United States allows American subsidiaries
to export vital goods to Iran despite seeking to recruit international
support for an embargo on the Teheran regime, a report said.

The Congressional Research Service said Washington continues to
allow subsidiaries of U.S. companies to trade with Iran. In a report by
analyst Kenneth Katzman, CRS said the major foreign subsidiaries of U.S.
companies have sold refinery equipment to Iran as well as helped that
country export ammonia.

The report, released in December, determined that U.S. and United
Nations sanctions have failed to stop or even significantly hamper Iran’s nuclear program. CRS also said Iran has bypassed Western sanctions meant to block fuel exports to Iran.

“There is a consensus that U.S. and UN sanctions have not, to date,
accomplished their core strategic objective of causing a demonstrable shift in Iran’s commitment to its nuclear program,” the report said.

“Most experts assess that the optimal means for sanctions to affect the nuclear program is by compelling an Iran decision to accept a compromise that would limit Iran’s nuclear development.”

The administration of President Barack Obama has maintained that
sanctions were slowing down Iran’s nuclear weapons program. But the report questioned this and cited Iran’s success in expanding its uranium enrichment
to a level of 20 percent.

“This latter material is a cause of U.S. concern because of the
technological skill needed to produce that level of enrichment,” the report
said.

“The U.S. trade ban does not bar subsidiaries of U.S. firms from dealing
with Iran, as long as the subsidiary has no operational relationship to the
parent company,” the report, titled “Iran Sanctions,” said.

“For legal and policy purposes, foreign subsidiaries are considered foreign persons, not
U.S. persons, and are subject to the laws of the country in which the
subsidiaries are incorporated.”

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