Congress fires its first warning shot on Biden’s Iran deal

Politico- May 5th 2022

President Joe Biden’s bid to revive the Iran nuclear deal flunked its first test in the U.S. Senate.

A bipartisan super-majority of senators voted late Wednesday to endorse a Republican-led measure stating that any nuclear agreement with Tehran should also address Iran’s support for terrorism in the region, and that the U.S. should not lift sanctions on an elite branch of the Iranian military, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

While the measure itself was non-binding, the vote was hailed as a modest victory for Republicans who have pushed the Biden administration to walk away from the talks in Vienna, where a final deal has eluded negotiators.

Lawmakers from both parties said it was a warning shot to Biden’s negotiating team, who have all but acknowledged in private that an agreement that goes beyond curtailing Iran’s nuclear program is no longer possible, according to multiple people familiar with classified Hill briefings on the subject.

The vote was also a preview of the bipartisan rebuke that’s likely to come if the U.S. and Iran clinch an agreement that doesn’t address Iran’s non-nuclear activities and removes the IRGC’s terrorist designation — a “test vote,” in the words of one senator.

“It is a strong expression of sentiment about where we’re at with Iran and the concern that members of the Senate have with Iran’s trajectory here as it relates to its march toward a nuclear weapon — and what we try to do to prevent it,” said Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), who wasn’t present for Wednesday’s vote but would have supported the measure. Menendez opposed the 2015 nuclear deal under Barack Obama’s administration.

“At the end of the day,” he added, “I think it’s a pretty strong statement.”

Wednesday’s vote was the first time lawmakers were forced to go on the record about the key sticking points in the Biden administration’s year-long efforts to revive a nuclear agreement with Iran. It made clear that most lawmakers are skeptical about the terms of the deal, and would only support a more comprehensive agreement that addresses Tehran’s backing for terrorism in the region, too.

“We want a longer and stronger deal,” Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) said when asked why he supported the measure. “[I want] the best deal possible that secures the region and prevents Iran from having a nuclear weapon.”

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), who spoke on the Senate floor against the measure, suggested it could undermine the Biden administration’s efforts and said it would be an endorsement of the Donald Trump-era approach to Iran.

“Iran is weeks away from having enough nuclear material for a weapon,” Murphy said. “To deny this administration the ability to enter into a nuclear agreement isn’t just folly, it’s downright dangerous…. We should not endorse four more years of this failed Iran policy.”

A whopping 16 Democrats voted with almost all Republicans to approve Sen. James Lankford’s (R-Okla.) motion, easily clearing the 60-vote threshold. (The vote was part of a series of “motions to instruct” related to legislation to boost competition with China.)