US House Approves Bill to Impose Sanction on Iran for Missiles
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Lawmakers in the Republican-dominated US House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved bipartisan legislation Thursday that would impose new sanctions on Iran over its missiles program.
Reps. Ed Royce and Eliot Engel sponsored the bill, which requires the Trump administration to identify for sanctions the companies and individuals inside and outside of Iran that are the main suppliers of Tehran's ballistic missile programs, The New York Times reported.
Royce, a California Republican, is chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee and Engel, who is from New York, is the panel's top Democrat. Both opposed the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers, but neither lawmaker is in favor of ditching the deal now.
Lawmakers are aiming to hold Iran accountable for what they say is reckless, destabilizing behavior while they debate how to meet Trump's new demands for fixing what he and other Republicans argue are serious flaws with the nuclear agreement.
The House vote comes less than two weeks after Trump refused to certify that Iran is complying with the accord. But Trump, breaking his campaign pledge to rip up the agreement, did not pull the US out or re-impose nuclear sanctions against Iran.
Trump instead punted the issue to Congress, instructing lawmakers to toughen the law that governs US participation in the deal and calling on the other parties to the accord to fix a series of deficiencies.
Recently, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei warned that Iran would shred the nuclear deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), if the US tears it up.
Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany) reached the 159-page nuclear agreement in July 2015 and implemented it in January 2016.
Since the historic deal was signed in Vienna, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has repeatedly confirmed the Islamic Republic’s compliance with its commitments under the JCPOA, but some other parties, especially the US, have failed to live up to their undertakings.
