GOP fires warning shots at Biden over Iran deal-making

Republicans are warning the Biden administration against pursuing any agreement with Iran that would provide sanctions relief without approval from Congress, amid signs of progress in negotiations to contain Iran’s nuclear weapons program. 

While President Biden’s top aides are keeping quiet on any progress with Tehran, reports that U.S. and Iranian officials are looking to carry out deescalating actions as part of an informal agreement are infuriating GOP members.

“I urge the Administration to remember that U.S. law requires that any agreement, arrangement, or understanding with Iran needs to be submitted to Congress,” Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, wrote in a letter to Biden on Thursday.

American diplomacy with Iran is a partisan flash point that touches some of the most serious U.S. foreign policy issues, including support for Israel, pushing back on Russia’s war in Ukraine and confronting China’s ambitions for global influence. 

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And it’s a battle that Republicans are happy to stoke ahead of the 2024 election.

Republicans who celebrated former President Trump’s withdrawal in 2018 from the nuclear deal with Iran have long-argued that Biden’s pursuit of diplomacy with Tehran are limited under the terms of the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015 (INARA).

“INARA was enacted with strong bipartisan support to ensure Congressional oversight of U.S. policy regarding Iran’s nuclear program,” McCaul wrote.

“This definition makes clear that any arrangement or understanding with Iran, even informal, requires submission to Congress.”

Biden’s allies cast doubt on the INARA argument, but Republican and conservative hardliners are staking out their positions. 

“Iran is an adversary and a state sponsor of terrorism. Any back-door agreement here is an attempt to skirt congressional oversight,” Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, tweeted on Thursday. 

“The Biden Admin is long-overdue to address reports of these misguided ‘proximity talks’ with Iran,” Senate Foreign Relations ranking member Senator Jim Risch (R-Idaho) tweeted. 

“Sanctions relief will only free up cash for the regime’s support for Russia, terror proxies, and state-sponsored murder of its own citizens. Shameful.”

Gordon Chang, a senior fellow with the conservative foreign policy think tank Gatestone Institute, and who is reportedly advising Florida Gov. Ron Desantis’s (R) presidential campaign, slammed Biden’s outreach to Iran as emboldening China. 

“The Biden Administration, by inking a new deal, is about to shovel billions of dollars to Iran. Yet that regime, with China’s help, is destabilizing the Persian Gulf and North Africa, and both Tehran and Beijing say we’re an enemy. So why is Biden so intent on helping them?” he tweeted. 

The GOP alarm comes amid reports that the Biden administration is on the brink of an informal agreement with Tehran aimed at reining in some of Iran’s most dangerous behavior. 

This includes Iran agreeing to limit its enrichment of nuclear-weapon fuel to 60 percent, below the 90 percent purity needed for a bomb. Iran would also halt lethal attacks on U.S. contractors in Syria and Iraq by its proxy forces, expand cooperation with international nuclear inspectors and hold back from selling ballistic missiles to Russia, the New York Times reported, citing Iranian officials. 

In exchange, the U.S. and partners could hold back strict enforcement of existing sanctions, allowing Iran some economic relief. 

Such actions appear to be underway. 

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller, while rejecting reports that the U.S. has reached an agreement with Iran over its nuclear program, confirmed that the U.S. had allowed Iraq to transfer to Iran $2.76 billion in backlogged gas and electricity payments, issuing a waiver for sanctions imposed on the Islamic Republic. 

“We approved a transaction, consistent with previous transactions that have been approved, to allow Iran to access funds held in accounts in Iraq for humanitarian and other non-sanctionable transactions,” Miller said Tuesday, adding such waivers pertain to “humanitarian and other non-sanctionable transactions.” 

Other benefits for Iran reportedly include the U.S. and partners holding back from seizing Iranian-oil tankers, and not pursuing punitive measures through international organizations like the United Nations or International Atomic Energy Agency. 

Another key priority for the U.S. is securing the release of Americans jailed in Iran.  

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani confirmed Monday that the U.S. and Iran had carried out indirect talks over exchanging prisoners.

“If the other party shows the same seriousness and goodwill, this can happen in the near future,” Kanaani reportedly said in a televised briefing. 

And remarks by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this week proclaiming Israel’s right to counter Iranian threats regardless of “smaller agreements” is another signal that Washington and Tehran are reaching some sort of consensus. 

Non-proliferation advocates argue that Republican and Democratic fighting over the strategy to address Iran’s malign behavior – its pursuit of nuclear weapons, support for terrorism and supply of weapons to Russia for use in Ukraine – undermines efforts to reduce nuclear weapons risk, in general, and casts doubt on America as a reliable broker. 

“Responsible members of Congress, Republicans or Democrats, should understand that it is in the U.S. and international security interests to communicate clearly and strongly to Iran that there are certain lines that must not and shall not be crossed regarding their advancing nuclear program,” said Daryl Kimball, Executive Director of the Arms Control Association.

“And Democrats, Republicans and independents should be united too, in that regard.”