Since exiting the Iran nuclear deal in May 2018, the United States has imposed an unprecedented pressure campaign on the Iranian regime. Its purpose was clear: to deprive the regime of revenue it uses to conduct its activity and get the regime back to the negotiating table for a better deal.
That strategy worked. U.S. sanctions deprived the Iranian regime of more than $70 billion dollars that forced it to cut payments to Hamas and Hezbollah, shutter multiple propaganda channels, and cut this year’s proposed military budget by 24%. Now, we have the opportunity to clinch a deal that actually keeps America safe.
So what should a new deal look like? Not like the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. A return to the JCPOA is Iran’s ardent hope, but indulging the regime and discarding our leverage would be a historic blunder. The JCPOA’s sunset clauses on unrestricted nuclear activity are now more than five years closer to expiration. Iran has built the largest ballistic missile force in the Middle East, but the JCPOA imposed no real restrictions on those armaments. Nor did the deal do anything to erode Iran’s support for terrorism or halt its hostage-taking. We should listen when Israel and Arab nations speak with one voice against reentering the deal.
Any new deal must be built on the premise that it is a means to an end, not an end in itself. It must address the full range of Iran’s behavior, not merely place modest and temporary restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program and hope Iran is willing to negotiate further. Negotiations should be conducted from a position of strength, which our sanctions pressure has built.
Just as critical to the success of any arrangement is congressional support, which the Trump administration repeatedly pledged to obtain. It is also a legal requirement. The Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act, signed into law by former President Barack Obama in 2015, requires any “agreement,” regardless of the form it takes, to be submitted to Congress for review. The law also specifies this requirement applies to “any related agreements … whether entered into or implemented in the future,” relevant to the scenario we face today. Any agreement, or attempt to return to the JCPOA, that circumvents Congress would be both unlawful and doomed to fail yet again.
If President Biden tried that route, Republicans, including those who might ascend to the Oval Office in 2024, will justifiably warn Iran they will not honor the same deal former President Donald Trump wisely withdrew from. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei knows this is not bluster, and so do international businesses. The Iranian regime would be wise to ensure bipartisan agreement for any deal it strikes, rather than mollifying just one political party.
A new Iran deal that is legally binding and has the support of Congress would have numerous important advantages. First, critics, supporters, and foreign governments party to the agreement will all know it is binding, and future administrations will find it more politically difficult to withdraw from it. Bipartisan support for such a deal, with restrictions that will not expire, will decrease the chances that the ayatollahs violate it. A treaty would best accomplish that task, and Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken should pledge to submit any deal to the Senate in that manner. Senate Republicans have the tools to ensure Biden’s State Department nominees agree to this commitment.
Importantly, businesses seeking to engage with Iran will see an enduring, legally binding arrangement that has widespread political support. Such a stable framework will give them clarity on their long-term investment decisions in Iran. We should all hope that investment, conditioned on an Iran that behaves like a responsible nation, will one day come to the benefit of the Iranian people, not to the brutal regime and its foreign terror proxies.
As former Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson famously observed in the Youngstown Steel case, the president’s authority is at its maximum when he acts in sync with Congress. A new and comprehensive agreement with Iran that has the strong support of Congress will honor the legislative body’s role in our constitutional system and protect the American people far better than the unfortunate deal that preceded it.
Gabriel Noronha served as the special adviser for the State Department’s Iran Action Group and special assistant to the Senate Armed Services Committee.
