The former chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee has asked House Speaker Paul Ryan to establish a special advisor on Iran, who would help ensure the government is imposing all required sanctions against Iran.
Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., said the Senior Advisor for Sanctions Policy and Iran Coordinator would help strengthen Congress’ oversight of Iran, and ensure “greater enforcement of sanctions” imposed against Iranians and Iranian entities involved in terrorism and weapons proliferation.
“The individual would serve as the congressional equivalent to Ambassador Stephen Mull, whom the Obama administration named to serve as coordinator for the U.S. implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on Iran Nuclear Program at the Department of State,” Ros-Lehtinen wrote to Ryan in December.
Republicans in Congress have been skeptical over the Obama administration’s willingness to use sanctions against Iran, and believe President Obama is willing to drop all sanctions against Iran under the nuclear agreement, regardless of whether Iran adheres to the deal or not.
Many have already argued that Iran failed to fully outline the past military dimensions of its nuclear program, and that the United Nations should have stopped implementation of the deal already.
On Thursday, the Obama administration surprised Congress by delaying sanctions it planned to impose against Iran for that country’s ballistic missile test. That decision could stoke further anger in Congress, and a push to ensure Obama doesn’t avoid his responsibility to punish Iran when necessary.
Ros-Lehtinen has written several Iran sanctions bills over the last few years. She suggested that the congressional advisor operate out of Ryan’s office, in order to ensure easy collaboration with the various committees that have some jurisdiction over Iran.
She also suggested that Ryan pick her former staffer director, Dr. Yleem Poblete, serve as the congressional advisor.
Ros-Lehtinen said Poblete was her “principal advisor” for nearly 20 years on the committee, and was the “principal staff member for the House on virtually every sanctions bill and Iran-specific legislation from the original ILSA to the Iran Threat Reduction and Syria Human Rights Act of 2012.”
ILSA is the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act, which tightened sanctions against Iran in 1996.
While Ros-Lehtinen no longer chairs the full committee, she is still on the committee, and chairs the Foreign Affairs subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa. Read her letter to Ryan here:
