Republicans Urge Biden to ‘Immediately’ End Negotiations with Iran

WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 12: US Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) (L) leaves after a hearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee at Hart Senate Office Building on May 12, 2021 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. Alex Wong/Getty Images/AFP
WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 12: US Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) (L) leaves after a hearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee at Hart Senate Office Building on May 12, 2021 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. Alex Wong/Getty Images/AFP
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Republicans Urge Biden to ‘Immediately’ End Negotiations with Iran

WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 12: US Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) (L) leaves after a hearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee at Hart Senate Office Building on May 12, 2021 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. Alex Wong/Getty Images/AFP
WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 12: US Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) (L) leaves after a hearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee at Hart Senate Office Building on May 12, 2021 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. Alex Wong/Getty Images/AFP

US Republicans on Thursday stepped up calls on President Joe Biden to end talks to return to a nuclear agreement with Iran.

In a letter to Biden, Republican senators said that any sanctions relief would let Iran step up funding for Hamas.

"We call on you to immediately end negotiations with Iran, and make clear that sanctions relief will not be provided," said the letter led by Senator Marco Rubio and signed by all but six Senate Republicans.

"Doing so would demonstrate a firm commitment to our closest ally in the region and to our own security interests."

They also pointed to Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who “controls” Iran’s negotiating team in Vienna, while Tehran supports terrorism in the world.

Republican senators detailed the attacks by Palestinian terrorist groups – more than 1,000 missiles fired at Israel in the past few days.

“This includes the first missiles aimed at Jerusalem since 2014,” they reminded the president.

“The United States engaging in active negotiations with Iran and potentially providing billions of dollars in sanctions relief will no doubt contribute to Iran’s support of Hamas and other terrorist organizations who attack Americans and our allies,” the Senators wrote.

“In the wake of Hamas’ recent attacks on Israel, the United States should take all necessary measures to hold Tehran accountable and not ease sanctions on Iran under any circumstances,” they wrote.

In the same context, a group of US senators sent a letter to the international business community, warning companies against resuming trade with Iran if the Biden administration removes sanctions on Tehran to rejoin the 2015 nuclear deal.

“Your member companies may see this potential removal of US sanctions on Iran as a lucrative opportunity. Trust us, they should not,” the letter read.

“If US sanctions on Iran were temporarily lifted and these firms decided to re-enter the Iranian market, they would be investing in ventures doomed to fail.

Any agreement that does not receive the broad and bipartisan support of Congress will not survive if a Republican is elected president in 2024. "Any sanctions relief will also be severely limited if Republicans win back majorities in Congress in 2022,” the group stressed.



Israeli Ultra-Orthodox Party Leaves Government over Conscription Bill

 Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, surrounded by ministers from the government attends a session of the Knesset, Israel's parliament, in Jerusalem, Monday, July 14, 2025. (AP)
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, surrounded by ministers from the government attends a session of the Knesset, Israel's parliament, in Jerusalem, Monday, July 14, 2025. (AP)
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Israeli Ultra-Orthodox Party Leaves Government over Conscription Bill

 Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, surrounded by ministers from the government attends a session of the Knesset, Israel's parliament, in Jerusalem, Monday, July 14, 2025. (AP)
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, surrounded by ministers from the government attends a session of the Knesset, Israel's parliament, in Jerusalem, Monday, July 14, 2025. (AP)

One of Israel's ultra-Orthodox parties, United Torah Judaism, said it was quitting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's ruling coalition due to a long-running dispute over failure to draft a bill to exempt yeshiva students from military service.

Six of the remaining seven members of UTJ, which is comprised of the Degel Hatorah and Agudat Yisrael factions, wrote letters of resignation. Yitzhak Goldknopf, chairman of UTJ, had resigned a month ago.

That would leave Netanyahu with a razor thin majority of 61 seats in the 120 seat Knesset, or parliament.

It was not clear whether Shas, another ultra-Orthodox party, would follow suit.

Degel Hatorah said in a statement that after conferring with its head rabbis, "and following repeated violations by the government to its commitments to ensure the status of holy yeshiva students who diligently engage in their studies ... (its MKs) have announced their resignation from the coalition and the government."

Ultra-Orthodox parties have argued that a bill to exempt yeshiva students was a key promise in their agreement to join the coalition in late 2022.

A spokesperson for Goldknopf confirmed that in all, seven UTJ Knesset members are leaving the government.

Ultra-Orthodox lawmakers have long threatened to leave the coalition over the conscription bill.

Some religious parties in Netanyahu's coalition are seeking exemptions for ultra-Orthodox Jewish seminary students from military service that is mandatory in Israel, while other lawmakers want to scrap any such exemptions altogether.

The ultra-Orthodox have long been exempt from military service, which applies to most other young Israelis, but last year the Supreme Court ordered the defense ministry to end that practice and start conscripting seminary students.

Netanyahu had been pushing hard to resolve a deadlock in his coalition over a new military conscription bill, which has led to the present crisis.

The exemption, in place for decades and which over the years has spared an increasingly large number of people, has become a heated topic in Israel with the military still embroiled in a war in Gaza.