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US lawmakers urge greater oversight as Iran nuclear deal nears implementation
The US House of Representatives yesterday approved a bill which would mandate a greater degree of oversight regarding July’s nuclear deal with Iran. It comes with the agreement expected to be implemented within the coming days and international sanctions on Iran subsequently lifted.
Iran and the P5+1 powers (US, UK, France, Russia, China and Germany) concluded a deal in July, which will likely see international sanctions on Iran removed in return for a significant slowdown in Tehran’s nuclear development over the next ten years. Since July, Iran has shipped to Russia 10,000 kg of low-enriched uranium in compliance with the agreement. Yesterday, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said that the international watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will verify tomorrow that Iran has adhered with the July accord. The Guardian says this morning that the United States and European Union could formally lift sanctions as early as this weekend.
However, the US House of Representatives yesterday voted 191-106 in favour of the Republican-backed Iran Terror Finance Transparency Act. The bill would prevent individuals and financial institutions being removed from a Treasury Department blacklist until the President assures US Congress that they have not been involved in terror or ballistic development activities. US President Obama has pledged to veto the draft legislation if necessary. The White House says that such a law would signal “the collapse” of the July agreement.
Meanwhile, Yuli Edelstein, the Speaker of the Knesset, yesterday appealed to the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to publicly condemn an international Holocaust-denial cartoon contest sponsored by the Tehran municipality. In a letter to Ban, Edelstein noted that, “The current president of Iran does not differ from his notorious predecessor, [Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad, and, like him, does not even attempt to conceal Iran’s intent to eliminate the State of Israel.” He urged Ban to issue “public condemnation of the Iranian policy [of Holocaust denial]” and to address “this matter directly with Iran, as well.”