Senate tones down Iran sanctions bill after input from Obama team

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee overwhelmingly passed Iran sanctions legislation May 25, but only after making several changes requested by Barack Obama administration officials who helped negotiate the nuclear deal.

The modifications are the latest example of the broad but discreet bipartisan commitment to keeping the much-maligned Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in place even while tightening non-nuclear sanctions on Iran. The revised bill ended up passing 18-3, with even outspoken nuclear deal advocates such as Sens. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and Tim Kaine, D-Va., voting in favor.

“The Iranian regime, and its clients and proxies, should take from this legislation that while we will continue to fulfill US obligations pursuant to the JCPOA … we remain committed to pushing back on Iran’s ballistic missile program, support for terrorism, violations of the arms embargo, and human rights abuses against its own citizens,” the panel’s top Democrat, Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., said in a statement after the vote.

The bill was co-authored by panel chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and Sens. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., with input from Cardin. It would impose mandatory sanctions on persons involved with Iran’s ballistic missile program and arms transfers, and apply terrorism sanctions to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).