Senate Urges China Package Conferees to Stress Importance of Iran Sanctions
The Senate last week passed a motion urging Senate conferees for the compromise China package to include an Iran-related sanctions provision in the final version. The nonbinding motion, introduced by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, asks the conference managers to include a provision stating that terrorism-related sanctions on the Central Bank of Iran and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps are “necessary to limit” cooperation between China and Russia.
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Cruz said he introduced the motion because the Biden administration is considering lifting sanctions against the Iranian bank and the IRGC as part of a potential return to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. He also said the administration “has refused to enforce oil sanctions against Iran, allowing Iran to sell more than a million barrels of oil a day, primarily to China.”
State Department spokesperson Ned Price said “there is nothing in a potential return to the JCPOA that would in any way diminish our resolve or our ability to continue combating these aspects of Iran’s policies in the region.” He told reporters May 5 the administration shares “the concern expressed by the Senate” and is “committed to doing all we can, pulling every lever we can to take on the threat, together with our partners, from the IRGC.”