New U.S. Sanctions on Iran Prohibit Importing Persian Pistachios, Carpets, and Caviar

July 12, 2010, Washington, D.C. – IABA released a report on the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act of 2010 last week.  The legislation, which was overwhelmingly approved by Congress on June 24th and signed by President Obama on July 1st, imposes an array of tough new economic penalties against Iran.

 “The summary on the new sanctions law is intended to bring the more salient aspects of the new law to the attention of both IABA members as well as the greater Iranian American community,” said Farhad Alavi, author of the report and an IABA board member. “We expect a large number of Iranian Americans to have substantial interest in and consequently questions about this new law, and as such it is imperative that our community be informed about the law’s key aspects. This law is a major piece of legislation that will ultimately have a very significant impact not only on commercial interaction between the United States and Iran, but also between Iran and the rest of the world.”

The law is mainly a response to Iran’s nuclear activities, but it also addresses other areas such as human rights violations in the aftermath of the June 2009 elections. The new law also eliminates previous exemptions for U.S. imports of pistachios, carpets, caviar and other Iranian products.  This particular new provision does not go into full effect until September 29, 2010, and it is still unclear how the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) will address the importation of such products.   

Click here to read the full IABA report.