PRESIDENT Clinton opened a two-pronged attack on terrorism yesterday when he signed a Bill aimed at penalising investment in Iran and Libya and outlined new security proposals, drawing sharp criticism from the European Union.
Criticising the Republican-dominated Congress for not approving new anti-terrorist measures last week, the President said he would be proposing additional legislation after the holiday break. This will include bringing terrorism under the scope of money-laundering legislation, strengthening extradition powers and increasing border patrols. The powers he had sought included tagging explosives and extended wire-tapping powers.
But the President's signing of the Bill authorising sanctions against foreign investors in the oil and gas sectors in Iran and Libya drew immediate international criticism. The sanctions would he triggered when a company's investment exceeded 540 million a year.
First to complain was France, which recently made a large investment in Libya through the Total petroleum company. The European Union has already denounced the Bill as "an extreme case of extra-territorial legislation", following the Helms-Burton Act which penalises foreign companies investing in former US property in Cuba.
"We agree that there should be a common Western policy on Iran and Libya," the British Foreign Office said in a statement. "But we cannot accept US pressure on its allies to impose sanctions under the threat of mandatory penalties on our companies carrying out trade with these countries in the oil and gas sectors."
Germany added its voice. "The threat of extra-territorial sanctions against European companies investing over a certain amount is not the right way to fight the growth of terrorism," said its Economics minister, Mr Gunter Rexrodt.
In Brussels, EU trade commissioner, Sir Leon Brittan, also endorsed the united front approach.
"The EU has already said it will act to defend its rights and interests if they are jeopardised by this legislation," he said. The EU fully supported the determination of the US "to combat terrorism in all its forms and whatever its source", but did not believe that the d'Amato law "goes in the right direction
The law is named after its chief sponsor, New York Republican Senator Alfonse d'Amato.
At the signing ceremony in the White House, in the presence of family members of the victims of the 1988 Pan Am Lockerbie disaster, and also of two men who were hostages in the US embassy in Iran, President Clinton said that "Iran and Libya are two of the most dangerous sponsors of terrorism in the world".
Security sources are also hinting that Iranian terrorist groups are being investigated for a possible role in the mid-air explosion of TWA flight 800 off Long Island last month. The FBI is still awaiting conclusive evidence that the crash was a terrorist act.
President Clinton made a brief reference to Northern Ireland, along with the Middle East, as two areas where "difficulties remain but conflicts that seemed insoluble move closer to resolution".
Terrorism is "an equal-opportunity destroyer", the President said. He emphasised the need "to break down the walls in our mind between foreign and domestic policy".