Kerry backs 'biting' sanctions against Iran's energy sector

US senator meets PM, says US, Israel "talking from the same page" on Iran.

By HERB KEINON
john kerry 311 AJ (photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski )
john kerry 311 AJ
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski )
US Senator John Kerry came out loudly in favor of sanctions against Iran’s energy sector in a press conference in Jerusalem on Monday.
Asked by The Jerusalem Post, John Kerry, the powerful head of the Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee, said that he “absolutely” supports sanctions against Iran’s energy industry. “I believe that the most biting and important sanctions would be those on the energy side,” Kerry said in a press conference after meeting Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.
The senator said that there were other sanctions that should be considered, such as financial ones, but he thought that those against the energy sector were “of particular importance.”
In the last two weeks, Netanyahu has been continuously calling for sanctions against Iran’s export and import of oil, saying that anything less would not be effective. Up until Kerry’s comments, the prime minister’s call has not received an echo.
Asked by the Post whether he was concerned Israel would take unilateral actions, or whether he relayed that concern to the prime minister, Kerry said that Israel and the US are “talking from the same page.”
Kerry said that one of the reasons for so much dialogue over the lastfew weeks, including his visit and the upcoming one of Vice PresidentJoe Biden next week, was to ensure that “we are all on the same page,all clear about what time frames exist or don’t exist, what threatlevels may be real or not real, or what options may be on the table forus.”
Kerry said that Netanyahu was “tremendously supportive” of theinitiatives currently being discussed, and said that the prime ministerwas not “rash.”