Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will return to the Capitol on Wednesday to help announce an Iranian sanctions bill.
The Republican Study Committee, chaired by Republican Indiana Rep. Jim Banks, is revealing the Maximum Pressure Act. Pompeo, who was a Republican Kansas congressman before joining the Trump administration, is set to appear at a press conference about the bill with the House’s largest conservative caucus on Wednesday.
The move comes as high-level talks are underway in Vienna aimed at creating a plan for the United States to rejoin the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, a goal for President Joe Biden.
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“President Biden has already demonstrated a troubling pattern of using tough rhetoric but pursuing the same, failed appeasement policies as his predecessor President Obama. His foreign policy can best be summarized: ‘Speak loudly and carry a twig,’” Banks said in a statement. “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.”
The 118-page bill aims to prevent the Biden administration from reentering the Iran nuclear deal, in part by making a policy that any deal with Iran should be ratified by the Senate.
It also would codify into law a number of executive orders issued by former President Donald Trump that impose sanctions on Iran as part of the maximum pressure campaign until it can meet 13 demands — 12 of which were laid out by Pompeo in 2018 when he was secretary of state, plus a new demand relating to human rights.
And finally, the bill would expand sanctions relating to those assisting Iran’s ballistic missile program and Iranian-backed militias.
“America, our ally, Israel and the world are safer because President Trump’s Maximum Pressure policy and crushing sanctions denied the Iranians the resources they needed to support building a nuclear weapon or to support terrorism around the globe. Rejoining the failed Iranian nuclear deal would come at great cost,” Pompeo said in a statement.
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Pompeo’s involvement in announcing the bill comes as rumors swirl that he is plotting a 2024 presidential run. Last month, he traveled to the key early primary state of New Hampshire to address a Republican group.
