Iran Energy Project

The Iran Energy Project is led by Mark Dubowitz and Jonathan Schanzername=about>Iran Energy Project, "About", Iran Energy Project website, accessed on 8 November 2010</ref> and is a project of the neoconservative Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD). It is dedicated to strengthening the Israel lobby-orchestrated sanctions against Iran's energy sector. FDD claims that it has "promoted the utility of energy sanctions as part of a comprehensive economic warfare strategy against the Iranian regime [providing] leading research and analysis in support of strong, broad-based energy sanctions."name=about>Iran Energy Project, "About", Iran Energy Project website, accessed on 8 November 2010</ref> Going further it states:

The Wall Street Journal credits FDD for having "brought the idea of gasoline sanctions to political attention." ...Informed by FDD research and analysis, the House and Senate have both passed legislation to curtail Iran's ability to import gasoline. [...] Nine of Iran's major gasoline suppliers – BP, Vitol, Trafigura, Glencore, Total, Shell, Reliance, Lukoil and Petronas – reportedly ended their gasoline supplies to Iran after calculating that the political risk from continued trade was too high. Most Western banks have stopped underwriting gasoline shipments to Iran. Three major insurance companies, Lloyd's of London, Munich Re and Allianz, announced that they would stop underwriting the gasoline trade.

The project's efforts have been given legislative muscle by fellow neoconservative Stuart Levey, presently a US Treasury undersecretary, who reportedly liaises with FDD and previously employed its current vice president Jonathan Schanzer as a researcher. The lobby group now liaises directly with the European Israel lobby through Emanuele Ottolenghi, based in Brussels.