As negotiations between Iran and the US are under way, Senate Republicans seek a congressional review of “executive branch proposals to terminate or waive sanctions imposed with respect to Iran.”
On Wednesday, Senator Jim Risch, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee ranking member, announced that he is joining Senator Bill Hagerty’s Iran Sanctions Relief Review Act of 2021.
According to the bill, the president should submit a report to the relevant congressional committees before any sanction removal or other action that alters US foreign policy on Iran.
So far, the senators gathered the signatures of 34 members.
“It’s increasingly clear that the Biden Administration’s promises to ‘lengthen and strengthen’ the Iran nuclear deal are instead an attempt to re-enter the flawed 2015 JCPOA at any cost,” said Risch.
“That’s why I have co-sponsored the Iran Sanctions Relief Review Act. This bill would require Congress to approve any Biden Administration effort to lift sanctions against the Iranian regime," he added.
“The United States currently maintains a position of significant leverage with Iran because our sanctions are working. Given that reality, the administration should keep its promises to address the JCPOA’s looming sunsets, as well as Iran’s regional terrorism, ballistic missile activity, and wrongful imprisonment of Americans."
Risch stressed that Biden should pursue an approach that will have bipartisan support incase he want to see a lasting Iran policy that transcends administrations.
For his part, Hagerty affirmed that the bill has secured its 34th co-sponsor.
“So far 34 Senators—enough lawmakers to block the Iran deal if President Biden actually followed the US Constitution and submitted the JCPOA as a treaty to the Senate—now support my legislation to require an up-or-down vote on any future sanctions relief to Iran’s terror-sponsoring regime," said Hagerty.
He added: “If the Biden Administration wants an Iran policy that can enjoy bipartisan support and survive changes in presidential administrations, then it needs to stop bending over backwards to give away hard-won economic and financial leverage and instead use this leverage to end the Iranian regime’s nuclear proliferation, ballistic missile threats, terrorism, and regional aggression.”
