Eli Lake, Columnist

Obama Administration Urges States to Lift Sanctions on Iran

After lifting international and federal sanctions related to Iran's nuclear program, the administration is turning its attention to state governments.

April 18, 2016 at 10:00 AM UTC

By Eli Lake

Eli Lake is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering national security and foreign policy. He was the senior national security correspondent for the Daily Beast and covered national security and intelligence for the Washington Times, the New York Sun and UPI.

Tehran wants to see more economic benefits.
Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg

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After lifting international and federal sanctions related to Iran's nuclear program, the Barack Obama administration is turning its attention to state governments.

On April 8, the State Department's lead coordinator for Iran nuclear implementation, Stephen Mull, sent letters to the governors of all 50 states as well as some local officials. He asked them to reconsider any laws on the books that called for divesting state funds, such as pensions, from businesses interacting with Iran's economy, or laws that would deny contracts to companies that do business with Iran.