Democratic and Republican senators expressed a desire to pursue tougher sanctions on Iran in response to its destabilizing and aggressive activities, as well as frustration over the Obama administration’s changing positions on Iran’s ballistic missile tests and its access to dollar transactions, during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Tuesday.
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Shannon insisted Washington will continue to impose tough sanctions on Iran’s ballistic missile program and interference in its region.
USA officials, including President Barack Obama, have said the missile testing violates the spirit of last year’s Iran nuclear deal, but say Iran is observing the letter of the agreement. But with the White House cutting back on sanctions on Iran as part of its nuclear deal with that country, the administration is considering ending the currency restriction with U.S. Treasury Sec.
The Iran Sanctions Act expires at the end of 2016. Two Iranian companies, Shahid Nuri Industries and Shahid Movahed Industries, have been sanctioned for supporting the Iranian ballistic missile program. In comments following the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, Obama denied speculation that the United States would ease rules preventing dollars from being used in financial transactions with Iran, in order to boost the country’s engagement with the rest of the world.
Shannon said it has not been his intention to say that the US was “walking on eggshells with the Iranians” or “pulling punches”.
Russian Federation is geared to finally deliver S-300 air defense missile systems to Tehran following the lifting of sanctions in January. “We are troubled by reports that the administration is stifling voices within its ranks for stronger action against Iran-putting the JCPOA and political legacy above the safety and security of the American people”. The Senators also blamed Iran for allegedly threatening the entire Middle East by supporting Hezbollah in Lebanon, the government of Syria, and the Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Iran has yet to see the economic growth it wants from President Obama’s nuclear deal, and it’s demanding additional concessions – above and beyond the agreement – in return for nothing.
Firouzabadi added that he had even asked Iran’s nuclear negotiators if the agreement included anything other than the text, and they assured him that it did not.
As the nuclear deal was being negotiated, Kerry informed Congress that, under the deal, Iran would be “restrained from any … work on missiles”.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said at a Tuesday hearing that while he is comfortable with the reassurances he’s received from the Treasury Department and Acting Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Adam Szubin – whose confirmation is pending before the Senate – he is perplexed by some of the public statements from Secretary of State John Kerry. The wording of the nuclear deal itself, committing the U.S.to “make best efforts in good faith to sustain this [deal] and to prevent interference with the realization of the full benefit by Iran”, gives Tehran significant leverage to prevent future multilateral or secondary USA sanctions.
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Corker told Shannon “there was some concern there was a little bit of a wink and nod going on where we were saying to institutions that we are not coming after you”.
