I’ll hopefully be blogging later on The Telegraph about my trip to the CAMERA dinner on Sunday night. But for now, the big political news… Joe Lieberman, the night’s honoree, announced that Tuesday he will be introducing a bill that would allow the president to sanction countries that sell refined petroeum, including gasoline, to Iran.
Lieberman couched the bill as strengthening — not undermining — the Obama administration’s diplomatic outreach to Iran, and informed the crowd that the measure already has the support of some of the Senate’s most liberal and conservative members.
More details to come.
UPDATE: Here’s the news brief from Ron Kampeas:
WASHINGTON (JTA) — A bipartisan slate of 20 United States senators is set to introduce a new Iran sanctions bill.
The bill, to be introduced as early as Tuesday by Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.), will target entities that provide shipping services, insurance and finance industries to Iran’s energy sector.
The bill also will explicitly support President Obama’s diplomatic outreach as a means of having Iran end its suspected nuclear weapons program. Obama backed similar measures during his presidential campaign and had signed on to a similar bill that failed to come to a vote in the last Congress.
Lieberman, who caucuses with the Democrats, has signed up 11 Democrats and eight Republicans, led by Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), to launch the bill.
A parallel bill is under consideration by the Democratic leadership in the U.S. House of Representatives.
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