House Committee Approves New Iran Sanctions Bill; Democrats Predict Veto

By Patrick Goodenough | January 8, 2016 | 4:14 AM EST

Secretary of State John Kerry, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond and E.U. foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini prepare to announce a framework Iran nuclear deal after talks in Lausanne, Switzerland on Thursday, April 2, 2015. (AP Photo/Keystone, Jean-Christophe Bott, File)

(CNSNews.com) – Less than a week into the new year, Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee signaled to the Obama administration that its Iran nuclear deal remains a target, marking up a bill that would restrict the administration’s ability to ease sanctions on Iranian banks.

Democrats deplored what they characterized as a blatant attempt to undermine the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and embarrass the administration.

Ranking Democrat Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) said the bill had no chance of becoming law: “We know that if it passes both Houses the president will veto it.”

He noted that he opposed the JCPOA, but Congress had failed to stop it, and it has now gone into effect.

“I believe that it doesn’t serve any purpose to have bills like this that are designed to kill the deal,” Engel said.

Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) called the bill “an attempt to embarrass and to undermine.”

“And that’s not how we should be doing business in this committee, and that’s not how Congress as a legislative entity, a branch of government, ought to be contributing to American foreign policy,” he said.

But Republicans pointed to recent Iranian actions including ballistic missile tests in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions, and cited claims that the administration had delayed plans to impose sanctions as a result of those tests.

(State Department spokesman John Kirby said Thursday there were “still some technical issues that are being worked out” before those sanctions could be imposed. He said any suggestion that the administration was treating Iran with kid gloves was “absolutely false.”)

Rep. Ted Poe (R-Texas) said the administration was bending over backwards to appease Iran.

“It may be hard to believe but, as bad as the [nuclear] deal was, the administration seems to be making it worse,” he said.

“The administration told us while pursuing a nuclear agreement that it would not let up the pressure on Iran’s ballistic missile program, nor would it let up the pressure on terrorism that was supported by Iran,” said Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Rep. Ed Royce (R-Calif.).

The point of the new legislation, he said, was an attempt to hold Iran to its commitments.

Under the JCPOA the U.S. is bound to lift sanctions against specified financial institutions on the agreement’s “implementation day” – which Secretary of State John Kerry said Thursday could be just “days away.”

But the Iran Terror Finance Transparency Act (H.R. 3662), which the committee approved by voice vote on Thursday, aims to stymie that.

It requires the president to certify, prior to lifting sanctions, that each financial institution has not knowingly, directly or indirectly, done business with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) or affiliated entities; any U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization; or any individual sanctioned in connection with Iran’s nuclear proliferation or ballistic missile activities.

And before any foreign individual can be removed from the Treasury Department’s list of specifically designated nationals, the administration would have to certify that the person has not supported terrorism or a terrorist group; or contributed to Iran’s nuclear proliferation or ballistic missile activities.

Many of the institutions and individuals targeted in the legislation were sanctioned for such activities or associations in the first place, meaning the administration would not be able to make the required certification, and would therefore not be able to move ahead with the JCPOA-mandated sanctions relief.

Royce pointed out that Iran’s Bank Melli was placed under U.S. sanctions in 2007 for providing banking services to the IRGC and its foreign operations unit, Qods Force.

Under the JCPOA, Bank Melli would be “given a pass” for backing terrorism and ballistic missile development, he said.

Also in line for JCPOA sanctions relief was Iran’s Bank Sepah, which when it came under sanctions in 2007 was described by the U.S. Treasury Department as “the financial lynchpin of Iran’s missile procurement network.”

“To be clear, those Iranian banks and individuals not supporting terrorism, not supporting ICBMs, they can be delisted,” Royce said. “That’s the agreement, they should be delisted. But not so for those threatening our national security.”

H.R. 3662 was introduced by Rep. Steve Russell (R-Okla.) and has 56 co-sponsors, all Republicans.

JCPOA “implementation day” occurs when the International Atomic Energy Agency verifies that Iran has completed steps laid out in the agreement to restrict its nuclear activities.

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