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Congress Seeks to Toughen Iranian Sanctions
(New York Times) Rick Gladstone - Congressional lawmakers in Washington introduced legislation on Wednesday that would greatly expand the sanctions on Iran, amounting to a commercial trade embargo if fully carried out. The bipartisan Nuclear Iran Prevention Act, which was expected to pass both the House and the Senate, would build on existing laws that restrict business dealings with Iran, widen the list of blacklisted Iranian companies and individuals and potentially block Iran's access to its foreign bank assets held in euros. Mark Dubowitz, executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said the legislation would expand the list of blacklisted companies to all those controlled by the government of Iran, which could number in the hundreds. "You're essentially cutting off these companies from strategic sectors of the Iranian economy," he said.