US lawmakers push for tougher sanctions against Iran

Published time: 22 Jun, 2010 19:10 Edited time: 24 Jun, 2010 02:19

Less than two weeks after the UN Security Council imposed a fresh round of sanctions on Iran over its nuclear activity, US lawmakers are setting their sights on the country again and want the sanctions to be toughened.

Obama is expected to come under pressure to endorse them.

“The UN Security Council resolution did not impose the kind of sanctions the Obama administration had originally been talking about,” Thomas Mattair, executive director of the Middle East Policy Council in Washington, told RT. “Obviously Russia and China made sure those sanctions were weakened. And that’s why, I think, you’ve seen in the United States new companies added to the lists of executive order companies that are blacklisted here in the US and that’s why you’ve seen a final push by Congress to put new legislation in front of the president.”