The top Democrat handling foreign relations in the Senate says he will try to get Congress to reauthorize Iran sanctions before the end of the year, a key goal of pro-Israel activists.
“There’s general agreement we have to extend the sanctions against Iran, and we need to do it before they expire at the end of this year,” Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said on March 31.
Last month Cardin toured Israel, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, where he met with leaders to discuss the best methods of dealing with Iran in the post-nuclear deal environment.
Reauthorizing sanctions was the major request last week when a record 18,000 American Israel Public Affairs Committee activists ended a three-day conference in Washington with a day of Capitol Hill lobbying. But in a move highly unusual for an AIPAC lobbying day, activists did not attach legislation to the request because Republicans and Democrats have yet to agree on a way forward.
Pro-Israel Democrats like Cardin are caught between an Obama administration that shows little enthusiasm for anything that could be construed by Iran as a U.S. bid to undercut the deal and Republicans determined to toughen what they say has been a giveaway to Iran.
Cardin said he can get Democrats behind a simple reauthorization, adding it is needed to keep in effect sanctions the Obama administration say will “snap back” should Iran violate the deal. The deal offers sanctions relief in exchange for rollbacks in Iran’s nuclear program.
“Speaking as the ranking Democrat on the committee, and on behalf of the Democrats, we could get it done quickly if we were to just do that part,” he said, meaning a simple reauthorization of the sanctions, which were passed in 1996 and reauthorized in 2006. The sanctions must be renewed every 10 years.
Cardin said concerns about whether Iran would expand its influence in the region came up during his March 18-26 tour of the region in conversations with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Saudi King Salman and Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, the emir of Qatar. Cardin was one of four Democrats who joined Republicans last summer in opposing the deal.
The Obama administration says reauthorization is not required and is opposing it for now.
“It is not necessary to extend the Iran Sanctions Act at this time, as it does not expire until December 2016,” a senior administration official said. “Right now we are focused on ensuring that Iran adheres to its nuclear-related commitments under the JCPOA,” the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the formal name for the Iran deal.
The official cited other laws that would snap back sanctions or penalize Iran for activities not directly related to the deal — for instance, its recent ballistic missile testing.
“We can do everything we need to do” under existing law, the official said.
In the House of Representatives, Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, and Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., its top Democrat, who often jointly sponsor legislation, have yet to do so to reauthorize the Iran sanctions.
Engel said in an interview that Democrats might have to compromise, being in the minority in both chambers.
“We need the reauthorization for sure,” he said. “The Republicans want a little bit more, and they do have the majority in both houses. We want to pass things.”
Royce was unavailable for comment, but his office provided a recent statement in which he joined Engel in saying they were working to reauthorize the Iran Sanctions Act.
The grappling over how and whether to reauthorize the sanctions act comes as Congress and the administration contend with how to deal with other Iranian actions, including its backing for terrorism and recent ballistic missile tests, which violate U.N. Security Council resolutions.
The administration, under pressure to react to the missile tests, last week sanctioned two entities involved in launching the missiles, an industrial group and the Revolutionary Guard Corps missile command. Such sanctions make it harder for the entities to trade in dollars or for individuals attached to the entities to travel.
Republicans and some Democrats want more. Two of the Republican presidential candidates, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Gov. John Kasich of Ohio, have cited the tests as reason for the United States to abrogate the nuclear deal and reimpose sanctions. Royce and Engel say they want new congressional sanctions to target the missile program, and Cardin said he also was considering new sanctions targeting the missile testing.