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Inside the Conference Negotiations on Iran Sanctions
(Foreign Policy) Josh Rogin - House and Senate leaders are meeting this week behind closed doors to work out language for new sanctions on the Central Bank of Iran (CBI), and the administration is pressing key Democrats to adopt their position, which aims to weaken the sanctions measures. At the center of the debate is an amendment, passed the Senate by 100-0 over the very public objections of top Obama administration officials, which would direct the administration to take punitive measures against foreign banks that do business with the CBI. Initially, the administration turned to House Foreign Affairs Committee ranking Democrat Howard Berman (D-CA) to help them with the changes. But Berman said at a conference on Thursday sponsored by the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, "I will not, and Congress should not, give into entreaties from the administration or elsewhere...to dilute our approach to sanctions on the Central Bank of Iran's petroleum transactions."