A dozen Senate Republicans are calling for tough new sanctions against Iran after that country’s recent wave of ballistic missile tests, after signs the Obama administration is content to allow the United Nations to decide whether Iran violated a U.N. resolution with those tests.
Iran conducted ballistic missile tests over two days last week, which initially led both the White House and the State Department to say that multilateral and unilateral sanctions were a possible response. State later confirmed that Iran appears to have gone against U.N. Security Council resolution 2231.
But this week, State stopped saying Iran was in “violation” of that resolution, and instead said Iran’s actions don’t appear to be “in keeping” with the resolution, and was silent on whether a violation had occurred. Instead, spokesman John Kirby said they’d let the U.N. decide.
“We have concluded that it is not in keeping with their obligations, and therefore, we’re going to have the Council take it up,” he said.
For Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., and 11 other GOP senators, that’s not enough. They proposed the Iran Ballistic Missile Sanctions Act on Thursday, which would impose sanctions against every sector of the Iranian economy that directly and indirectly supports Iran’s ballistic missile program.
That includes sanctions against entities that are partly owned or controlled by Iran’s major ballistic missile organizations.
The bill would also require sanctions if the president can’t certify that people listed in U.N. Security Council resolutions aren’t involved in missile-related activities.
“I have repeatedly called on the administration to impose tough sanctions against Iran for its illicit and dangerous ballistic missile activities,” Ayotte said Thursday. “That administration has failed to do so, and the potential danger to our homeland, as well as the urgent threat to our forward deployed troops and our allies like Israel, is only growing.”
“Tough words alone will not deter the world’s worst state sponsor of terrorism from continuing to develop its ballistic missile program, and I call on my colleagues in Congress, as well as the administration, to pass this legislation and impose without delay the strongest possible sanctions in order to hold Tehran accountable,” she added.
She noted that President Obama’s own Defense Secretary, Ash Carter, said Thursday that more sanctions are needed to curb Iran’s activities.
Ayotte also noted that Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph F. Dunford, Jr. told the Senate Armed Services Committee that Iran is the greatest threat to U.S. interests in the region. He also said Iran’s ballistic missile program “can hold key regional U.S. infrastructure at risk.”
Her bill is co-sponsored by 11 other Republicans, including three current and former GOP presidential candidates this year: Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is also on the bill.
Many of the same co-sponsors are also on a separate bill from Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., who proposed a bill sanctioning Iran over its missile program and its human rights violations. Kirk mirrored Ayotte’s reaction to the Obama administration’s decision to do nothing about Iran’s recent actions.
“I reject our current posture of willful ignorance and inaction towards Iran’s terrorist activities, illegal missile testing, funding Assad’s war, and human rights abuses,” Kirk said. “The administration’s response cannot once again be it’s ‘not supposed to be doing that’ as Iran continues to walk all over U.S. foreign policy and the international community.”
Kirk’s bill imposes sanctions against Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and Mahan Air, an Iranian airline that Kirk says has “helped the IRGC to spread terrorism and militancy.”
