Senators on the Foreign Relations Committee easily passed a bipartisan bill that slaps sanctions on Iran over its ballistic missile tests and other non-nuclear behavior Thursday, amid attempts by former Obama administration officials to stymie the legislation over concerns that it could hurt the 2015 nuclear deal.
The bill passed the committee stage 18-3, clearing the way for consideration by the full Senate in coming weeks. The House of Representatives is conducting a similar bipartisan push for sanctions, as is the Trump administration itself.
The bill sanctions entities involved with Iran’s ballistic missile program and applies terrorism sanctions to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). It also mandates that the president block the property of any entity that engages in the sale, supply, or transfer of prohibited arms to or from Iran.
Former Secretary of State John Kerry, who fought the renewal of Iran sanctions legislation during the Obama administration, warned against the sanctions package in a tweet storm Wednesday.
6- After Rouhani’s reelection, there is much up in the air/room for misinterpretation. This is not the moment for a new Iran bill.
— John Kerry (@JohnKerry) May 24, 2017
7- There are many tools to up the pressure already in place and at our disposal. We need to weigh/consider risk to JCPOA.
— John Kerry (@JohnKerry) May 24, 2017
Kerry is on the advisory council of Democracy Works, a group launched earlier this month that looks to “promote, protect, and preserve” the nuclear deal. A number of other officials on the board have argued against the sanctions legislation.
Democrats who voted for the legislation Thursday did not share those concerns.
“I don’t buy it,” Virginia senator Tim Kaine told THE WEEKLY STANDARD.
Kaine, a strong supporter of the nuclear deal, underscored the need for non-nuclear sanctions, something Obama administration officials promised during the 2015 debate over the nuclear deal.
“The Obama administration folks, Secretary Kerry and others, told us very bluntly, we’ve maintained our full ability to sanction for human rights violations, for violating others U.N. protocols like ballistic missile testing,” he said. “They are engaged in activity that warrants that. … They understood what the deal was and so did we”
Maryland senator Ben Cardin, ranking member on the foreign relations panel, told TWS he and others ensured that the bill cracks down on Iran for non-nuclear activities.
“We wanted to make it very, very clear, there is nothing in this bill that is in any way inconsistent with the [nuclear deal],” he said.
Those efforts helped to win over top Democrats.
“What Ben Cardin tells me is they’ve gone to great lengths to make sure they didn’t violate the nuclear agreement,” Dick Durbin, the second-highest ranking Democrat in the Senate, told TWS. “It’s very helpful.”
The legislation approved Thursday also incorporated suggestions from former Obama Treasury official Adam Szubin. Szubin harshly criticized the bill in a mid-May letter circulated by The Ploughshares Fund.
“[The legislation] would provoke a terrible reaction in Iran and with our allies, as it would be seen as contrary to at least the spirit of the [nuclear deal],” Szubin wrote in the letter.
Senate Foreign Relations committee chairman Bob Corker told TWS that committee staff worked closely with Szubin and took some of his suggestions into account.
“Our staff worked with him to try to address some of the concerns that he had,” Corker said. “Some of the suggestions we didn’t agree with, but some of them we thought were good input and altered the bill to reflect that.”
