{"id":472,"date":"2016-07-12T14:10:38","date_gmt":"2016-07-12T11:10:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/arabiangcis.org\/english\/?p=472"},"modified":"2016-07-12T14:10:38","modified_gmt":"2016-07-12T11:10:38","slug":"house-gop-to-tackle-new-iran-sanctions-before-leaving-town","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/news\/house-gop-to-tackle-new-iran-sanctions-before-leaving-town\/","title":{"rendered":"House GOP to tackle new Iran sanctions before leaving town"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just before leaving on their long summer recess, the House of Representatives will put forward a series of bills imposing new sanctions on Iran\u2014 a symbolic effort to shine light on Iran\u2019s illicit behavior and alleged violations of the nuclear deal the Obama administration signed one year ago.<\/strong><\/p>\n

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) will bring three Iran-related bills to the floor before the House adjourns on July 14, exactly one year after the Iran nuclear agreement was announced. All three are expected to pass with members voting along party lines. There are no plans for the Senate to take them up as of now. The timing also coincides with new reports from the German intelligence services that Iran continues to conduct \u201cillegal proliferation-sensitive procurement activities\u201d at a \u201cquantitatively high level.\u201d
\nThe main bill, sponsored by McCarthy, would impose new sanctions on Iran and any country that supports its illicit activities in response to Iran\u2019s continued development and testing of its ballistic missile program, its support for terrorism and its ongoing violations of human rights. The legislation would require the U.S. government to sanction companies that aid Iran\u2019s ballistic missile program and apply terrorism sanctions to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.-Quds Force as well as to companies that aid it, including Iran\u2019s Mahan Air.
\n\u201cThe Administration has demonstrated that they do not intend to hold Iran accountable for their dangerous and destabilizing ballistic missile program, global terrorism activities, and atrocious human rights violations that are committed against their own people,\u201d McCarthy told me in a statement. \u201cWe want to penalize the Iranian government for their continued illegal activity.\u201d
\nThe second bill the House will vote on is sponsored by House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-Calif.) and would state that the policy of the United States is to deny the Iranian government and Iranian banks access to U.S. dollars. The administration has said it won\u2019t allow Iran to do business in dollars through the U.S. financial system, but Royce\u2019s bill would seek to prevent Iran from using dollars even offshore.
\nRoyce told me that Iran \u201chas no business gaining access to the U.S. dollar. Iran\u2019s supreme leader can\u2019t be allowed to seek \u2018death to America\u2019 with U.S. dollars in his pocket.\u201d
\nThe third bill to be passed by Congress is meant to prevent any U.S. government entity from purchasing heavy water from Iran. The Energy Department said in April it will\u00a0purchase 32 metric tons of heavy water, which is used in nuclear material production, from Iran this year. Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.), the bill\u2019s sponsor, told me the purchase gives U.S. taxpayer money to the Iranian regime.
\n\u201cThe Obama administration is acting outside the requirements of the nuclear deal \u2014 sending millions of dollars to the Iranian regime. This money makes the United States an active partner in Iran\u2019s nuclear program,\u201d he said.
\nThe State Department has maintained that Iran is meeting its commitments to the nuclear agreement, even in light of the new German intelligence reports about ballistic missile program procurement. State Department spokesman John Kirby said that although the German report says Iran sought nuclear dual-use technology, it does not say whether that was before or after the agreement was signed last July.
\n\u201cWe have no information to indicate that Iran has procured any materials in violation of the [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action],\u201d Kirby said last week. \u201cMore generally, the [International Atomic Energy Agency] has reported that Iran continues to implement its nuclear-related commitments under the deal. We understand that Germany shares this view and is not suggesting that Iran has violated its JCPOA commitments.\u201d
\nThe German allegations are just the latest in a long list of examples of Iran either skirting the prohibitions in the deal or ramping up its illicit activities in areas the deal does not explicitly cover. Congress cannot force the administration to address these issues, but it can force Democrats into an uncomfortable vote heading into the election and set the table for more action this fall.<\/p>\n

Source:<\/span> The Washington Post<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just before leaving on their long summer recess, the House of Representatives will put forward a series of bills imposing new sanctions on Iran\u2014 a symbolic effort to shine light on Iran\u2019s illicit behavior and alleged violations of the nuclear deal the Obama administration signed one year ago. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":473,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[31,12,32],"class_list":["post-472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-gop","tag-iran","tag-newsanctions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=472"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":474,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472\/revisions\/474"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}