US president renews state of emergency order against Iran

US President Barack Obama has extended the state of emergency order against Iran for another one year as American lawmakers plan to impose a set of new sanctions against Tehran over its nuclear energy program.

“Our relations with Iran have not yet returned to normal, and the process of implementing the agreements with Iran, dated Jan. 19, 1981, is still under way,” Obama said in the notice to the House and Senate on Friday.

“For these reasons, I have determined that it is necessary to continue the national emergency declared on Nov. 14, 1979, with respect to Iran, beyond Nov. 14, 2012,” he added.

The state of emergency against Iran was first declared by former US President Jimmy Carter in 1979 following the victory of the Islamic Revolution.

Obama signed the notice as US lawmakers are working on a set of new and unprecedented sanctions against Iran that could bar Tehran from doing business with most countries until the Islamic Republic agrees to ally international concerns about its nuclear energy program, the Associated Press quoted officials as saying.

One congressional aide involved in the process said the financial and trade restrictions include a “complete sanctions regime” against Iran.

At the beginning of 2012, the United States and the European Union imposed sanctions on Iran’s oil and financial sectors with the goal of preventing other countries from purchasing Iranian oil and conducting transactions with the Central Bank of Iran. The sanctions entered into force in early summer 2012.

On October 15, the EU foreign ministers reached an agreement on another round of sanctions against Iran.

The illegal US-engineered sanctions were imposed based on the unfounded accusation that Iran is pursuing non-civilian objectives in its nuclear energy program.

Iran rejects the allegations, arguing that, as a committed signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency, it has the right to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.