Rep. Mark Kirk (D-IL) and the move to stop Iran’s nuclear program took center stage at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee Annual Policy Conference just concluded in Washington D.C. Arguably, the premier constituent event of the year, the conference hosted nearly 7,000 interdenominational supporters of Israel and approximately half the nation’s Senators and Congresspersons in a precision multimedia spectacle of public policy regarding the Jewish State.

Amid a multiplicity of topics and political heavyweights from Israeli President Shimon Peres to Vice president Joe Biden, the rising star on the pivotal issue seemed to be Rep. Kirk who is among the leading sponsors of the Iran Refined Petroleum Sanctions Act (IRPSA).

Kirk spoke at a standing room-only panel discussion on missile defense but was greeting with standing ovations by several hundred attendees even before his introduction was complete. Many of his constituents from the 10th District of Illinois were in the room, clapping their hands above their heads.IRPSA has been introduced by 27 senators but Rep. Kirk is among its most ardent supporters.

The measure which would limit Iran's ability to import and produce refined petroleum products by requiring the president to impose sanctions on companies providing refined petroleum to Iran or helping Iran expand its own refining capacity. Iran is the world’s second largest importer of refined gasoline. The nation is awash in oil, but the dearth of refinery capacity makes the nation prone to embargo.
Despite having refining capacity of 1.5 million barrels per day, Iran imports around 140,000 b/d of gasoline, most of which is shipped in 30,000-35,000 ton cargoes to the Persian Gulf port of Bandar Abbas.

IRPSA would force the Iranian regime to choose between an internationally condemned and sanctioned nuclear program and further economic ruin. The newest harsh and sweeping measures would require the president to impose sanctions on any entity that provides Iran with refined petroleum resources or contributes to same. A central target of the measure would be six firms that form the mainstay of Iran’s gasoline imports despite global sanctions. The six are Vitol, Glencore International, the Swiss/Dutch firm Trafigura, France's Total, British Petroleum and India's Reliance Industries.

But more than just the oil companies, the measure targets oil cargo shipping corporations, their insurers or reinsurers, the financial entities and or brokers involved, and even drilling machine component suppliers. Those companies would be effectively barred from doing business in the United States by prohibiting their financial transactions in America, and blocking any American or American financial institution from any transaction involving so sanctioned an entity. Moreover, once declared in violation, the entity’s assets would be frozen. Many are calling the IRPSA one of America’s last-ditch diplomatic efforts to derail Iran’s nuclear weaponization.

“If we are serious about stopping the emergence of a nuclear Iran, our window for effective diplomacy is starting to close,” says Congressman Kirk, co-chair of the Iran Working Group and a Navy Reserve Intelligence Officer. “History teaches that negotiations in the absence of effective sanctions are likely to fail while negotiations following effective sanctions are likely to succeed.”

Israeli countermeasures to date have included a massive international covert program of equipment sabotage, assassination of key nuclear personnel, and a vibrant diplomatic offensive. But all these efforts combined amount to nothing more than delaying tactics as Iran is irrevocably determined to achieve a nuclear weapon as fast as possible. Many believe such a weapon will be used to fulfill its prediction that Israel will soon be wiped off the map.

The final day of the AIPAC gathering is reserved for a gargantuan face-to-face muscular lobbying effort as constituents fan out across the Capital to meet with legislators and push for legislation.

While the stopping Iran is the number focus of the conference, a cadre of energy freedom advocates and AIPAC members led by Gal Luft and Anne Korin of the Set America Free coalition will also be pushing legislators to enact the Open Fuel Standard. This measure, deemed vital by energy independence experts, compels automakers to make at least half their vehicles multi-fuel by 2012. In the event of a protracted weeks-long fuel interruption caused by an Iranian disruption of the Strait of Hormuz, the American economy would be immobilized without an alt fuel program. The United States currently has no contingency plans for an interruption of such a magnitude.

Edwin Black is the New York Times best selling investigative author of IBM and the Holocaust, and a book about an oil interruption arising from an Israeli-Iranian confrontation, The Plan: How to Save America When the Oil Stops—or the Day Before (Dialog Press).