Though Ghasemi is already subject to US and EU travel bans, as the host country for OPEC headquarters, Austria is required to let him attend the organization’s meetings in Vienna. In his letter to Secretary Clinton, Congressman Deutch urges the US to utilize existing sanctions laws to prevent any company from providing fuel to the aircraft that facilitate Ghasemi’s air travel to and from Vienna. Since President Obama signed the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act of 2010 into law, US sanctions on refined petroleum have resulted in nearly every major European oil firm refusing to provide fuel to the state-owned airline Iran Air. Congressman Deutch also highlights the need for US officials to emphasize to the EU the importance of upholding Ghasemi’s current travel ban for all other European countries. The EU recently suspended the travel ban of Ali Akbar Salehi, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad’s foreign minister and former head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Agency. 

“As head of OPEC, General Ghasemi will have significant influence over the world’s oil market and could use his position to provide the IRGC with a new level of access to the international marketplace. Already, he has stated his intentions to continue working with the IRGC ,” writes Congressman Deutch. “Despite finally feeling the squeeze of international economic sanctions, Iran continues to engage in brutal human rights violations not only against its own people, but also by aiding the Syrian regime’s efforts to violently repress the Syrian people. We must not allow the IRGC’s behavior to be rewarded with enhanced access to lucrative oil deals, and we should do our utmost to prevent its representatives from assuming positions of prominence on the world stage.”
 
The complete letter is available for download here.
 
Congressman Ted Deutch (D-FL), a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has been an outspoken proponent of tougher enforcement of Iran sanctions and the need for additional sanctions to crack down on human rights abuses and prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. In 2011, the Iran Transparency and the Accountability Act, legislation written by Deutch requiring disclosure of sanctionable activities in Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings, was included in a new comprehensive, bi-partisan legislative package aimed at strengthening existing sanctions law.  Shortly after his election to Congress, Deutch testified before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Intergovernmental Affairs on how the US can better identify corporations that invest in Iran’s energy sector.  Prior to coming to Washington, as a member of the Florida State Senate, Deutch passed the nation’s first Iranian divestment law, enabling Florida to divest over a billion dollars from the regime.