Washington – The United States Senate voted unanimously today to adopt a bipartisan amendment put forward by Senators Evan Bayh (D-IN), Jon Kyl (R-AZ), Joseph Lieberman (ID-CT), and John McCain (R-AZ), urging the president to impose crippling economic sanctions on Iran later this year, if the Iranian government fails to take tangible steps to abandon its nuclear ambitions by then.

The measure, which was introduced as an amendment to S. 1390, the Defense Authorization Act, specifically urges sanctions against the Central Bank of Iran – the keystone of Iran’s financial system and its principal remaining lifeline to the international banking system – if the Iranians fail to embrace President Obama’s offer of direct diplomacy before the G-20 summit in late September, or if they fail to suspend all uranium enrichment and reprocessing activities within 60 days of that summit.

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