Senate Shows Strong Opposition To Biden Admin's Approach To Iran

Although the motions are not binding, they convey a sense of what senators would like to see in the final bill and what could keep it from getting enough votes to become law.

In one of an expected 28 votes, the Senate voted 86-12 - with strong bipartisan support - for a "motion to instruct", sponsored by Republican Senator Ted Cruz, seeking a report on terrorism-related sanctions on Iran and saying such sanctions are necessary to limit cooperation between China and Iran.

If it became law, the provision could complicate delicate negotiations on the international Iran nuclear deal, although western officials have largely lost hope that the pact can be resurrected, four years after former Republican President Donald Trump abandoned it in 2018.

Negotiations, which started in Vienna in April 2021 to revive the Obama-era nuclear deal, JCPOA, have been on a protracted pause since March 11, as the Islamic Republic demanded removing its Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) from the US list of terrorist organizations.

Sen. Cruz before the vote called on lawmakers to vote "Yes" if they want terrorism sanctions on Iran’s Revolutionary Guard to remain, or "No" if they want to lift those sanctions. He also accused the Biden administration of refusing to enforce oil export sanctions on Iran, allowing it to sell more than a million barrels of crude a day.

Iran International has also obtained text of a Motion to Instruct Senate Conferees by Cruz that calls for identifying "major areas of diplomatic, energy, infrastructure, banking, economic, military and space cooperation…between Iran and China, regarding US policy to limit such cooperation…through terror-rekated sanctions imposed on Central Bank of Iran and the IRGC, as such sanctions are necessary to limit such cooperation.“

Media reports have indicated that the US was contemplating to remove the IRGC from its Foreign Terrorist Organizations list and only keep its foreign operations arm, the Qods (Quds) Force under sanctions. Iran has rejected a partial removal of sanctions and insists on all designations to be removed.

Opposition to Biden Administration's efforts to revive the 2015 nuclear agreement has grown in recent weeks, with an overwhelming majority of Republicans and many Democrats opposing a return to deal and making concessions to Tehran.

He wrote in a tweet on Tuesday that the benefits of restoring the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran is zero because the Biden administration has allowed the Islamic Republic to make so much progress in its nuclear program.

He added the administration is “so ideologically committed to doing their deal they're refusing to make the assessment public”.

The CEO of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) reacted to the revelation on Wednesday, saying, “Congress immediately needs to get to the bottom of this and release this assessment”.

Calling for major policy and personnel changes, Mark Dubowitz said, “The Biden administration’s Iran policy is a total failure”.

Cruz first talked about the assessment during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Tuesday, but Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources Brian McKeon dodged questions about it, saying it is an assessment of the intelligence community and classified.

“Since President Biden is elected, Iran has made enormous, unprecedented progress on its nuclear program, including enriching uranium to 60 percent, deploying advanced centrifuges, and acquiring significant knowledge”, Cruz said.

He added that “the Biden administration has a secret assessment that says there is a point after which the nuclear progress would make the deal meaningless”, urging the secretary of state to reveal that point to the public.

The negotiations, which started in Vienna in April 2021, have been on a protracted pause since March 11, as the Islamic Republic demanded removing Iran’s Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) from the US list of terrorist organizations.

Member of parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Committee Zohreh Elahian said on Wednesday that it is not the policy of the current administration to negotiate for the sake of negotiating.

She reiterated that “all sanctions must be lifted, and we must certainly obtain a credible guarantee from the United States so that we do not face another withdrawal from the agreement and the return of sanctions”.

She added that the Islamic Republic has not gotten any credible guarantee so far, and US President Joe Biden’s statement will not meet Iran’s criterion for concluding an agreement. Former US president Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the Obama-era Nuclear deal JCPOA and imposed sanctions on Iran. 

Emphasizing that the parliament, the country's negotiating team and the Foreign Ministry are of the opinion that “an internal guarantee” must be obtained for the agreement, she explained that such a guarantee should be included in the agreement so if the other side reinstates sanctions or imposes new measures, Iran’s commitments to limit uranium enrichment will be cancelled. 

Direct negotiations with the United States are not currently on Iran’s agenda, the MP said and added. “We are waiting for the decision by the American side, and if this process becomes attritional, a decision will be made whether or not to continue the negotiations”.

Hadi Bayginejad, a member of the parliament’s energy committee spoke of the need for transparency for all hydrocarbon sales conducted under the umbrella of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), which ultimately controls all explorations, distribution and exports.

Bayginejad was speaking to Iran’s Fars news agency affiliated with the Revolutionary Guard, the IRGC.

Since the United States withdrew from the Obama-era nuclear agreement with Iran, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and imposed oil export sanctions, Tehran has been shipping its crude and oil products using illicit methods. Details of its sales and shipping are considered state secret to prevent any retaliation against third parties by the US.

In the previous round of international sanctions between 2011-2015, Iran resorted to similar illicit methods, finding intermediaries and shady brokers to sell its oil on international markets. The practice led to large-scale corruption involving officials. In one case, a businessman, Babak Zanjani embezzled at least $2.7 billion and is now facing the death penalty in prison.

Bayginejad said the parliament’s energy commission lately held a series of meeting to find ways for making transactions transparent. This is of special importance he told Fars. He bemoaned that the parliament’s budget bill this year did include a table specifying domestic consumption quantities of hydrocarbons as a step toward tracking the whole sector. However, the Guardian Council that must approve all parliament decisions stroke down this part from the budget bill.

The lawmaker explained that more than 30 companies are involved in selling crude, natural gas and oil products on behalf of the national oil company. It should become clear what they do with the oil and gas they receive from the NIOC and where and to whom they sell it. “It is very important for parliament to find out the details of oil and gas sales and their revenues,” he emphasized, and added that energy committee will not relent on this issue.

Since conservative president Ebrahim Raisi took office last August with the blessing of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and the full support of the Revolutionary Guard, IRGC, the government and parliament have allocated large quantities of oil to the military to export and gain revenues. This means that transactions will remain a state secret, with the potential of corruption by the IRGC. Bayginejad, however, did not explain why parliamentallocated 3.5 billion euros of crude oil “to individuals” in March to sell on the world markets, with the assumption that the proceeds would go to the military.

Bayginejad is a conservative lawmaker close to the Paydari front, which is a large faction in parliament, espousing more ‘revolutionary’ positions, including intermittent campaigns against ingrained corruption among officials.

He told Fars that people have a right to know which countries are buying Iran’s oil and how much are the revenues. The government insists that with less enforcement by the Biden administration it has been able to export more oil in the past tear and it revenues are up by almost 50 percent.

Bayginejad emphasized that it is also important for the parliament and the public to know how much oil is handed out to all the intermediary companies and what is their revenue.

He added, “Transparency leading to economic development and progress is important when it occurs in the financial affairs of the country.”

At a press conference Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said on Tuesday that “there’s still a lot more work to be done [on the JCOPA], we don’t have an agreement just yet, and it’s possible we might not get there”. The US is set to take the rotational presidency of the Security Council later this month.

She noted that “if diplomacy does not succeed, then we’ll continue to work very closely with others in the international community to increase the pressure on Iran”.

Thomas-Greenfield stated that some substantial progress has been made in resolving a significant number of the issues necessary for the US to come back into the deal on a compliance-for-compliance basis, and “we’re continuing to work on that effort, and we’ll see where it leads”.

She said president Joe Biden made a solemn commitment that Iran must not be allowed to acquire a nuclear weapon, but he also made a commitment that he was prepared to go back into the deal, or the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. 

Iran’s foreign minister said earlier on Tuesday that Washington “must correct Trump's illegal behavior with a realistic approach” and take a political step to reach a nuclear agreement, insisting that Tehran and Washington are still exchanging messages through the European Union despite the halt in Vienna talks.