US House Passes Ballistic Missile Sanctions on Iran

Local Editor

The US House of Representatives voted nearly unanimously Thursday for new sanctions on Iran's ballistic missile program, part of an effort to clamp down on Tehran without immediately moving to undermine an international nuclear agreement.

The vote was 423 to two for the "Iran Ballistic Missiles and International Sanctions Enforcement Act." Among other things, it calls on the US president to report to Congress on the Iranian and international supply chain for Iran's ballistic missile program and to impose sanctions on Iranian government or foreign entities that support it.

Lawmakers are aiming to hold Iran accountable for what they say is reckless, destabilizing behavior while they debate how to meet Trump's new demands for fixing what he and other Republicans argue are serious flaws with the nuclear agreement.

The House vote comes less than two weeks after Trump refused to certify that Iran is complying with the accord, which is aimed at preventing Iran from assembling an arsenal of atomic weapons. But Trump, breaking his campaign pledge to rip up the deal, did not pull the US out or re-impose nuclear sanctions against Iran.

Trump instead punted the issue to Congress, instructing lawmakers to toughen the law that governs US participation in the deal and calling on the other parties to the accord to fix a series of deficiencies. If they can't, Trump said he would likely pull the US out of the deal and reinstate previously lifted US sanctions on Iran's nuclear program. That would probably be a fatal blow for the pact between Iran and world powers.

US aides said that, for now, lawmakers are focusing on clamping down on Iran in other ways such as the Hezbollah and missile-related sanctions.

US Representative Ed Royce, the Republican chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, who sponsored the ballistic missile bill, has said the international nuclear deal should be strictly enforced by Washington working with its allies. "The United States must respond to the full range of threats and, with this bill ... that is what we are doing today," he said.

The House passed three other Iran-related measures Wednesday, including new sanctions on Hezbollah and a resolution urging the European Union to designate Hezbollah as a "terrorist" organization.

To become law, the measure would have to pass the US Senate and be signed into law by Trump.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team