U.S. senators look to new sanctions against Iran for missile development

REUTERS

 

A member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards checks a missile inside an underground depot in an undisclosed location, Iran, in this handout photo released by the official website of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on March 8, 2016. REUTERS/sepahnews.com/Handout via Reuters

 

MUNICH (Reuters) - U.S. Republican senators plan to introduce legislation to impose further sanctions on Iran, accusing it of violating U.N. Security Council resolutions by testing ballistic missiles and acting to "destabilise" the Middle East, a U.S. senator said Sunday.

 

"I think it is now time for the Congress to take Iran on directly in terms of what they’ve done outside the nuclear programme," Senator Lindsey Graham, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told the Munich Security Conference.

 

Graham said he and other Republicans would introduce measures to hold Iran accountable for its actions.

 

Tensions between Tehran and Washington have risen since an Iranian ballistic missile test that prompted U.S. President Donald Trump's administration to impose sanctions on individuals and entities linked to the country's Revolutionary Guards.

 

"Iran is a bad actor in the greatest sense of the word when it comes to the region. To Iran, I say, if you want us to treat you differently then stop building missiles, test-firing them in defiance of U.N. resolution and writing 'Death to Israel' on the missile. That's a mixed message," Graham said.

 

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif told the conference earlier on Sunday that Iran did not respond well to sanctions or threats.

 

James Jones, a former Supreme Allied Commander in Europe and President Barack Obama’s first national security adviser, told a separate event in Munich that he remained convinced that sanctions had persuaded Iran to negotiate the 2015 landmark deal with six world powers to curb its nuclear programme.

 

"The sanctions did work. Iran would never have come to the negotiating table without sanctions," Jones said. "This is a new form of response that if properly utilised can change behaviour and get people to do things that they otherwise wouldn't do."

 

Senator Christopher Murphy, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told the same panel there was nothing preventing Congress from imposing sanctions beyond those that were lifted as a result of the 2016 nuclear agreement with Iran.

 

Murphy, a Democrat, said had backed the nuclear deal in the explicit understanding that it would not prevent Congress from taking actions against Iran outside the nuclear issue.

 

"There's going to be a conversation about what the proportional response is," Murphy said, referring to Iran's missile test. "But I don't necessarily think there's going to be partisan division over whether or not we have the ability as a Congress to speak on issues outside of the nuclear agreement."

 

Murphy said the United States needed to decide whether it wanted to take a broader role in the regional conflict.

 

"We have to make a decision whether we are going to get involved in the emerging proxy war in a bigger way than we are today, between Iran and Saudi," he said.

 

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal and John Irish; Editing by Jane Merriman and David Goodman)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-02-20

6 hours ago, webfact said:

"Iran is a bad actor in the greatest sense of the word when it comes to the region.

But it is aiding Iraq in the fight against ISIL, albeit for its own political advantage not unlike all the other anti-ISIL supporters. So maybe only a self-absorbed actor.

Sanctions a highly overused process/words that gets little results just ask North Korea. I have heard this word sanctions for 60 years now and it never seems to amount to nothing but bragging rights for the country issuing them. Just remember that you will have to go it alone this time as the coalition of the willing that participated the last time are long gone never to return. Your on your own. The horse has left the barn on this one Iran got their 150 billion dollars back that were frozen. I think your holding a Wild Bill Hickock hand

They're developing missiles because they feel insecure. US senators should ask themselves why Iran feels insecure. Then they'll know where the sanctions should be directed.

Sanctions will do little, A Military Action will bring a reaction. So whatever path is taken it will be lose lose. As has already been pointed out sanctions on North Korea fail. Iran is not the only agitator in the middle East

3 hours ago, Kiwiken said:

Sanctions will do little, A Military Action will bring a reaction. So whatever path is taken it will be lose lose. As has already been pointed out sanctions on North Korea fail. Iran is not the only agitator in the middle East

 

Way I see it, Iran is not an agitator at all, they are merely reacting to the threat that has developed on two fronts: Israel and the Sunnis. They are not out to conquer other nations. They would rather be left in peace, but these are legitimate concerns for them but they are  being denied the right to defend themselves on account of the west's own paranoid sense of insecurity. The west is creating tension simply by identifying threats to itself and oppressing nations on that basis. In the first place, everyone should just calm down.

 

If Iran's movie industry is anything to go by, it is the most civilised and sensitive of Muslim countries. American should be giving reassurances, not sanctions.