Washington - The US House of Representatives voted Tuesday
to impose more sanctions on Iran and urged the US government to
designate the Iranian military as a terrorist organization.
The 397-16 vote would strip US President George W Bush of a waiver
he has used to exempt foreign companies that invest more than 20
million dollars in Iran, based on a 1996 law.
US presidents have used the waiver provision in the 11-year-old
law to avoid alienating European countries whose efforts are needed
to halt the spread of weapons of mass destruction.
The United States already has comprehensive sanctions against
Iran.
Representative Tom Lantos, Democratic chairman of the House
Foreign Affairs Committee, said that Washington needs to act, alone
if necessary, if the UN Security Council fails to agree to tougher
sanctions.
'If multi-lateral sanctions are not in the offing, the United
States needs to be prepared to tighten and to fully enforce our own
sanctions, without any exceptions,' Lantos said.
The bill, as well as similar legislation in the Senate, calls on
the US State Department to list Tehran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard
as a terrorist organization.
The US Defence Department has accused the Revolutionary Guard of
fomenting violence in Iraq, including training and arming militants
responsible for attacks on US troops.
The House bill passed Tuesday, prior to Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad's address to the UN General Assembly in New York.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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