GOP Proposes Dropping Biggest Hammer Yet on Iran

Congressional GOP Leaders and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have introduced the largest sanctions package on Iran to date.

The only catch is if it will gain any support.

According to The Washington Free Beacon:

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The legislation, dubbed the Maximum Pressure Act, would formally codify the Trump administration’s tough sanctions campaign on Iran and force the Biden administration to submit any revamped nuclear deal with Iran to Congress for review before it is approved. The bill, spearheaded by the Republican Study Committee, was unveiled during a morning press conference on Capitol Hill with former secretary of state Mike Pompeo, who led the Trump administration’s efforts to isolate Iran and defund its regional terrorism enterprise.

As the Biden administration inches closer to rejoining the 2015 nuclear accord and unwinding American pressure on Iran, Republicans in Congress are using their legislative and oversight authority to hamper negotiations and make clear that any such deal will not last beyond Biden’s term in office. While the sanctions bill stands little chance of passing a Democrat-controlled Congress, it is yet another sign that Republicans are united in opposition to a revamped accord that provides the Islamic Republic with potentially billions in cash assets. It is also likely that hawkish Democrats, including Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Bob Menendez (D., N.J.), will not back the Biden administration if it grants sanctions relief before Iran dismantles its nuclear program.

Pompeo and Rep. Jim Banks (R., Ind.), a member of the House Armed Services Committee and the Republican Study Committee’s chairman, said the legislation is a signal to the White House and Iran that Congress will not abide by any deal that is not first brought before it for a vote. The Obama administration never brought the Iran deal before Congress for a vote, fearing that it could not pass. Because the agreement was never formally ratified, the Trump administration was easily able to scrap it in 2018. Banks and several colleagues formally notified the Biden administration earlier this month that Congress will not be bound to an agreement that grants Iran sanctions relief, as the Washington Free Beacon first reported.

“If President Biden bypasses Congress and rejoins the failed Iran deal, our adversaries should know that conservatives in Congress will continue to fight to support President Trump’s successful maximum pressure campaign and work to pass this legislation which would reimpose all sanctions until Iran” shutters its nuclear program and stops supporting terrorist groups across the Middle East, Banks said in a statement.

Pompeo pointed out how the approach from the Trump administration brought Iran to its knees.