Bipartisan Group Of Lawmakers Push To Solidify US Sanctions On Iran

United States House of Representatives chamber at the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C.
United States House of Representatives chamber at the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C.

A bipartisan group of the US House lawmakers are set to introduce legislation Thursday that would solidify Washington’s sanctions against Iran no matter the result of nuclear talks.

According to Fox News on Thursday, the legislation, titled the Solidify Iran Sanctions Act (SISA), would create a necessary deterrent by targeting the country's energy sector and making it more difficult to finance terrorist operations or develop ballistic missiles.

Republican Representative Michelle Steel from California, who is leading the bill in the House, said that "From brutal abuses committed against its own people, to its never-ending threats towards free and democratic societies, the Iranian regime has proven time and again that they are a rogue state with no interest in preserving regional or global peace.”

Stressing the need to prevent “the unacceptable threat of a nuclear Iran from becoming a reality,” he said, “Existing sanctions have proven successful in preventing such a catastrophe, and we must ensure that we can continue to place economic and strategic pressures on Iran to prevent them from developing nuclear weapons or supporting terrorists.”

Steel said he is cooperating with Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) on this issue to lead the bipartisan group in the House on the bill, which would require the "imposition of sanctions with respect to Iran’s illicit weapons programs, conventional weapons and ballistic missile development, and support for terrorism, including Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC)."

Last month, Scott, along with several other senators, introduced the Senate version of the legislation, designed to make the Iran Sanctions Act of 1996 permanent.