LA City Council Approves Local Iran Sanctions
The Los Angeles City Council approved a law that bars people investing in Iran’s energy sector from bidding on or holding contracts with the state of California or its local governments.
Friday’s 13-0 vote makes Los Angeles the first city in California to be in full compliance with the Iran Contracting Act of 2010, according to a statement issued by the council.
The state act was passed by California in the wake of the federal sanctions law, the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act, which authorizes state and local governments to divest their funds from parties involved in Iran’s petroleum, natural gas, or nuclear industries and to bar such parties from state and local government contracts.
City Attorney Mike Feuer told the Los Angeles City News that his office surveyed all city agencies and did not find any that were not complying with the city’s 2010 ban on doing business with firms contracting with Iran.
“Today the City of Los Angeles is sending a strong message to an Iranian regime that has continually flaunted international law in pursuit of a nuclear weapon, while providing peace of mind to every Angeleno that our tax dollars will not support such efforts,” said City Council member Bob Blumenfield, an author of the state law.
Those testifying Friday in favor of the act included Dave Rand, chair of the Jewish Public Affairs Committee of California, and Sam Yebri, president of 30 Years After, a non-profit organization that promotes the participation and leadership of Iranian American Jews in American political, civic and Jewish life.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Most Popular
- 1
News Student protesters being deported are not ‘martyrs and heroes,’ says former antisemitism envoy
- 2
News Who is Alan Garber, the Jewish Harvard president who stood up to Trump over antisemitism?
- 3
Fast Forward Suspected arsonist intended to beat Gov. Josh Shapiro with a sledgehammer, investigators say
- 4
Opinion What Jewish university presidents say: Trump is exploiting campus antisemitism, not fighting it
In Case You Missed It
-
Opinion The dangerous Nazi legend behind Trump’s ruthless grab for power
-
Culture In Pope Francis, a voice for interfaith dialogue and against antisemitism
-
Fast Forward Israeli army fires deputy commander after finding ‘operational errors’ in killing of 15 Gazans
-
News Pope Francis, who advanced church’s relationships with Jews, dies at 88
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.