Illinois Rep. Kirk Calls on Obama to Cut Gasoline Deliveries to Iran

A Republican congressman is calling on President Obama to cut off gasoline deliveries to Iran because of the Islamic Republic's rejection of a U.N. plan to curb its stockpile of enriched uranium.

"It is time for the Obama administration to recognize that negotiations with Iran in the absence of effective sanctions have failed," Illinois Rep. Mark Kirk said in a press release Monday.

"For diplomacy to succeed, Iran must come to the bargaining table in economic pain. To avoid military action and stop the emergence of a nuclear-armed Iran, President Obama should work to cut off Iran's gasoline supply in the next 90 days," he said.

A U.N.-brokered plan in October required Tehran to send 1.2 tons (1,100 kilograms) -- around 70 percent of its stockpile -- of low-enriched uranium to Russia by the end of the year for further enrichment, a move that would ease international concerns that the material could be processed for a bomb.

According to the U.N. plan, after further enrichment in Russia, France would convert the uranium into fuel rods that would be returned to Iran for use in a reactor in Tehran that produces medical isotopes. Fuel rods cannot be further enriched into weapons-grade material.

Iran told the International Atomic Energy Agency -- the nuclear watchdog group for the United Nations -- that it would not accept a compromise offered by the U.S. and its allies to transport its low-enriched uranium to Russia.

"Since the disclosure of Iran's covert uranium enrichment facility, we learned the regime tested a nuclear warhead design, rejected the West's nuclear compromise, sent a ship loaded with weapons to terrorists in Lebanon and charged American citizens with espionage," Kirk told FoxNews.com. What is it going to take for the administration to call for new sanctions?"

Kirk, who is co-chairman of the bipartisan House Iran Working Group, which educates Congress on all issues related to Iran, also blasted the country for reportedly testing a nuclear warhead design and for charging three U.S. hikers who entered the country illegally with espionage.

"As Congress moves forward with the Iran Refined Petroleum Sanctions Act, the President should convene a meeting with key European, Gulf and Asian allies to discuss the immediate suspension of gasoline deliveries to Iran," Kirk said in his statement.

Five European companies -- the Swiss firm Vitol, the Swiss and Dutch firm Trafigura, the French firm Total,British Petroleum, and the Indian firm Reliance -- supply almost all of Iran's imported gasoline.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.