The following statement was released on Nov. 2 by the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
The committee adopted two bipartisan bills aimed at strengthening and expanding U.S. sanctions on Iran and other rogue regimes. To view Chairman Ros-Lehtinen’s full remarks during the markup, please click here.
The Iran Threat Reduction Act (H.R. 1905), which enjoys the support of 345 cosponsors, updates and replaces previous Iran sanctions laws to ensure that current law vigorously addresses the multiple threats posed by Iran.
“The Iranian regime’s Achilles’ heel is its energy sector,” Committee Chairman Ros-Lehtinen said. “The Iran Threat Reduction Act is designed to clamp new and tougher sanctions on Iran’s energy sector, threatening the regime’s existence if it refuses to halt its nuclear weapons program.”
The bill closes loopholes in energy and financial sanctions and counters the regime’s efforts to evade them. The bill also targets the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps and senior Iranian regime officials.
Ros-Lehtinen noted recent comments by Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad publicly acknowledging the effectiveness of sanctions. “Our banks cannot make international transactions anymore,” Ahmadinejad told the Iranian parliament. Still, “We must move quickly to tighten existing sanctions and add new and tougher ones, as we are doing today,” Ros-Lehtinen said.
The Committee also approved H.R. 2105, the Iran, North Korea, and Syria Nonproliferation Reform and Modernization Act. The bill expands sanctions on those assisting Iran, North Korea, and Syria in the development of their dangerous weapons programs, including their nuclear programs.
“It is not possible to stop Iran’s nuclear weapons program without targeting its nuclear program as a whole, because there is no safe dividing line between those activities and facilities that are purely peaceful and those which are military-related,” Ros-Lehtinen said. Both measures were approved unanimously, as amended.
“I would like to thank all of the Members of the Committee, and particularly Ranking Member Berman, Congressman Poe, Congressman Sherman, Congressman Royce, and Congressman Deutch for their leadership and hard work on this issue and this bill,” Ros-Lehtinen said.
The markup summary, which includes text of all amendments made in order, is available here.