The
Iran and Libya Sanctions Act of 1996 (
ILSA) was a 1996
act of Congress that imposed
economic sanctions on
firms doing business with
Iran and
Libya. On September 30, 2006, the act was renamed to the
Iran Sanctions Act (
ISA), as it no longer applied to Libya, and extended until December 31, 2011. As of March 2008, ISA sanctions had not been enforced against any non-US company; the act allows the president to waive sanctions on a case-by-case basis, though this waiver is subject to renewal every six months. Despite the restrictions on American investment in Iran, FIPPA provisions apply to all foreign investors, and many
Iranian expatriates based in the US continue to make substantial investments in Iran.