On the eve of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad address to the UN, a group of conservative evangelical and Roman Catholic leaders submitted a letter to members Congress urging them to toughen up their stance on Iran. The group, which calls itself “Christian Leaders for a Nuclear-Free Iran, includes Pat Robertson of the Christian Broadcasting Network, Southern Baptist Convention chairman Johnny Hunt, Charles Colson of the Prison Fellowship Ministries, Richard Land of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, Tom Minnery of Focus on the Family, Bill Donohue of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, Michael Youssef of Leading the Way, Wendy Wright of Concerned Women for America, Gary Bauer of American Values, and John Hagee of the Cornerstone Church in San Antonio.

The letter to Congress states:

We urge your immediate action to address Iran’s program to develop and deploy nuclear weapons by imposing economic sanctions on foreign companies that: export refined petroleum products, including gasoline, to Iran; help maintain Iran’s domestic refining capacity; provide ships or shipping services to transport such products; underwrite those shipments; or finance or broker those shipments. The U.S. should also immediately initiate a boycott of any arms sales to Iran.