Republican lawmaker: GOP to do its utmost to overturn any restoration of Iran deal, reinstate bans

A Republican congressman has threatened that his fellow Republican colleagues will do their utmost to reverse Washington’s possible return to the 2015 Iran deal and reimpose sanctions on Tehran if they regain the majority in the House of Representatives in the November elections.

In a tweet on Wednesday, Jim Banks of Indiana rebuffed a recent statement by Iranian lawmakers, who called for a guarantee that the US would not leave the Iran deal — officially named the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) — again in case of a revival of the agreement, which was abandoned by former President Donald Trump.

“Iranian MPs should know… once the GOP takes back the House we will do everything in our power to overturn Biden’s restoration of JCPOA and reimpose max pressure sanctions,” Banks tweeted.

This is while many in the US, including officials of the Joe Biden administration, have already admitted the failure of the so-called maximum pressure campaign of unilateral sanctions that Trump launched against Iran after leaving the JCPOA.

The campaign was designed by ardent Iran hawks to coerce Tehran into agreeing to a “better deal” that would place tighter restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program and cover Iran’s ballistic missiles and regional influence.

From the start, Iran made it clear that it will not renegotiate the JCPOA. A year after the US’s withdrawal, it also began accelerating the development of its civilian nuclear work within the framework of its contractual rights.

Late in July, the US special envoy for Iran, Robert Malley, admitted that the maximum pressure campaign pushed by the Trump’s administration against the Islamic Republic “failed miserably” and “hurt US interests.”

In their statement addressed to the Tehran administration, 250 Iranian lawmakers set a series of conditions for the restoration of the JCPOA, including legal guarantees approved by the US Congress that Washington would not abandon the agreement once again.

They said the US should not be able to “use pretexts to trigger the snapback mechanism,” under which sanctions would be immediately reinstated, if the JCPOA is revived.

Iranian MPs: US must give Congress-approved guarantee it won’t quit Iran deal again

The majority of Iran’s lawmakers say the US government must give a legally firm guarantee that it will not quit the Iran deal again.

Although the Joe Biden administration agrees that “maximum pressure” has failed, it has not taken any tangible steps to deliver on its promise of repealing the policy.

Over the past several months, Iran and the remaining parties to the JCPOA have been in talks in Vienna, Austria, over a revival of the agreement. The two sides say an agreement is close at hand in Vienna, with only a few outstanding issues remained to be solved.

Iran has cited Washington’s indecisiveness as the reason behind the protraction of the talks, as a number of key issues remain unresolved, ranging from the removal of all post-JCPOA sanctions to the provision of guarantees by the American side that it will not leave the deal again.

Tehran has repeatedly said it will never give up its red lines and nuclear rights in the talks.

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