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August 4, 2000/3 Av 5760, Vol. 52, No.47
Cheney at odds with Jews over Iran
LISA HOSTEIN
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
PHILADELPHIA - Dick Cheney, the Republican nominee for vice president, is at odds with the Jewish community over sanctions against Iran.
Containing Iran has been a top priority for the organized Jewish community, which cites Iran's record as a major sponsor of terrorism and a potential nuclear threat to Israel and the world.
When the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the pro-Israel lobby, was at the forefront of a successful lobbying effort to pass the Iran and Libya Sanctions Act in 1996, one of its chief opponents was Cheney, then the chief executive officer of an international oil company.
The law calls for punitive trade measures against foreign companies and countries that invest in Iran's energy sector.
Cheney has opposed sanctions as an effective foreign policy tool since his days in Congress. But as head of Halliburton since the mid-1990s, he became an active lobbyist for lifting most unilateral sanctions.
He said he advocated that position as CEO of Haliburton because his obligation was to "my shareholders and my employees and my customers."
But when asked what his stance as vice president would be, he said that he would support Bush's position, which is that it is premature to lift those sanctions, but he added: "I might go in and argue a different point of view with him, but I'll do it privately."
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