50 US lawmakers, including 30 Democrats, urge Biden to release text of ‘troubling’ Iran deal before signing

The renewed agreement will allow the IRGC and terror proxies to evade sanctions, House Democrats and Republicans said. 

By Debbie Reiss, World Israel News

Nearly 50 U.S. lawmakers, including about 30 Democrats, in the House of Representatives have signed a letter expressing concerns over the pending Iran nuclear deal, and called on President Joe Biden to share the final text of the agreement with Congress before it is signed.

“We are deeply concerned about multiple provisions that reportedly may be contained in the final language of any agreement with the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism,” the letter, spearheaded by Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and Andrew Garbarino (R-NY), states.

The letter raises concerns about reported provisions regarding U.S. sanctions targeting the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, as well as the lifting of sanctions on Iran’s central bank, national development fund and national oil company.

The lawmakers wrote: “The new agreement reportedly states that, ‘Non-U.S. persons doing business with Iranian persons that are not on the [U.S. sanctions list] will not be exposed to sanctions merely as a result of those Iranian persons engaging in separate transactions involving Iranian persons on the [U.S. sanctions list] (including Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), its officials, or its subsidiaries or affiliates).’”

This creates a “troubling precedent,” they said, that could “significantly dilute the effectiveness of terrorism-related sanctions on the IRGC” as well as lead to sanctions evasion.

The group noted that Iran and its proxy terror groups, including Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, will suddenly have one trillion dollars in sanctions relief at their disposal over the next decade.

“Iran and the IRGC would be an enormous danger to Americans at home and abroad, and to our allies,” the House Democrats and Republicans said.

They also raised concerns about Russia’s role as “the de facto judge of compliance and the keeper of Iran’s enriched uranium,” without any U.S. European or oversight. The lawmakers called on the Biden administration to not allow Russia to engage in any nuclear projects with Iran — including a $10 billion civilian project to expand Iran’s nuclear infrastructure.

“We should not let war criminal Vladimir Putin be the guarantor of the deal or the keeper of massive amounts of Iran’s enriched uranium. Iran supports the illegal war in Ukraine and has been supplying Russia with drones used to kill Ukrainians,” they wrote.

They urged Biden not to return to any deal with Iran “prior to releasing the full text of the agreement and any side agreements to Congress,” alongside an “in-depth briefing on the matter.”

“We must address the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran, stand strong against terrorists, and protect American values and our allies,” the letter concludes.

Iran nuclear dealIran sanctionsJoe Biden