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A group of 49 Republican senators on Monday said they would not support the Biden administration’s new nuclear deal with Iran, vowing to “cancel” any deal that eases sanctions and eases restrictions on Tehran’s nuclear program.
All Republican senators except Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky signed a statement on Monday to President Biden, Democrats and the international community, warning that “a major deal without strong bipartisan support in Congress will not survive.”
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“According to press reports, the Biden administration may soon enter into an agreement with Iran on a significant easing of sanctions in exchange for only short-term restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program,” the Republican senators wrote.
“By all accounts, the Biden administration appears to have given away the shop,” they continued, adding that the Biden administration “seems to have agreed to lift sanctions that were not even placed on Iran in the first place for its nuclear activities, but instead due to his continued support for terrorism and gross violations of human rights.”
“Nuclear restraints in this new deal appear significantly less stringent than the 2015 nuclear deal, which was itself too weak, and would drastically undermine U.S. leverage for a truly ‘longer and stronger’ deal,” they said. “Moreover, the deal is likely to strengthen Iran’s financial and security relations with Moscow and Beijing, including through arms sales.”
Republicans have criticized the Biden administration for “refusing to submit a new Iran deal to the Senate for ratification as a treaty in accordance with its constitutional obligation or for consideration in accordance with the requirements of the law, which were passed on a bipartisan basis in response to the 2015 deal.” . .”
“Furthermore, despite earlier promises to the contrary, the administration has failed to properly consult with Congress,” they added.
“Republicans have made it clear that we will be ready and willing to support Iranian policies that completely block Iran’s path to nuclear weapons, limit Iran’s ballistic missile program, and counter Iranian support for terrorism,” they said. “But if the administration agrees to a deal that doesn’t help achieve these goals or makes them harder to achieve, the Republicans will do everything in our power to reverse it.”
The Republicans added that “if Iran does not stop its support for terrorism, we will oppose the lifting of any sanctions related to terrorism and will seek to reintroduce them. And we will force the Senate to vote on any attempt by the administration to do so.”
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“We urge the administration, our fellow Democrats and the international community to learn from the recent past,” they said. “A basic agreement without strong bipartisan support in Congress will not survive.”
However, when questioning the Republicans, an administration official asked “specifically” what “they would do to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon because the maximum pressure campaign didn’t work.”
A senior Republican congressional aide close to GOP supporters regarding the Iran deal told Fox News that the Iranian regime “only began to rush towards nuclear weapons after Biden was elected.”
“Even the Biden administration is not contesting this timeline, although it hopes no one notices,” the aide said. “Republicans want to return to the maximum pressure campaign that sent Iran’s economy into a death spiral backed by a real military threat in case they try to cross the finish line.”
The 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) placed restrictions on Iran’s nuclear activities in exchange for a significant waiver of international sanctions. The Trump administration withdrew the US from the deal amid concerns that the deal did not do enough to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions, including time limit clauses.
Iran eventually pulled out of the deal after the Trump administration reintroduced sanctions as part of its maximum pressure campaign, and Tehran has been ramping up its enrichment ever since. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said this week that it believes Iran has significantly increased its stockpile of highly enriched uranium but cannot verify the exact size of the stockpile due to regime restrictions on inspectors.
The Biden administration has been keen to renegotiate the deal, and talks began in Vienna last year to renew it. Initially, these negotiations stalled due to demands for a significant easing of sanctions by the hardline Iranian regime.
Secretary of State Anthony Blinken speaks at a joint press conference with Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas in Tallinn, Estonia, March 8, 2022. (AP Photo/Raul Mee)
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JCPOA member countries, including major US adversaries such as China and Russia, backed the administration’s drive to restore the nuclear deal last year.
Last week, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken told Fox News that Russia remains involved in the talks despite the war with Ukraine.
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But late last week, Russia demanded that the sanctions imposed on Moscow for its war with Ukraine be excluded from negotiations.
A source familiar with the discussions told Fox News last week that a Russian delegation disrupted negotiations in the final hour by demanding sanctions immunity on any future trade with Iran.
Meanwhile, Paul told Politico that he did not sign the letter along with the rest of his Senate Republican colleagues because: “Deprecating a deal that has not yet been formulated is akin to condemning diplomacy itself, not a very thoughtful position.”
Rich Edson of Fox News, Adam Shaw and The Associated Press contributed to this report.