US Republicans reintroduce Iran sanctions bill
Three US Republican senators have again put forward a measure aimed at imposing fresh sanctions on Iran over various allegations against Tehran, including its missile program.
Senators Marco Rubio, John Cornyn and Todd Young proposed the bill on Tuesday, accusing the Islamic Republic of supporting terror and conducting ballistic missile tests.
The hawkish GOP senators, who had introduced the same bill last December, slammed the administration of former President Barack Obama for not adopting adequate measures against Iran.
This is while Tehran has always asserted that its nuclear activities are solely for peaceful purposes and irrelevant to missile tests, which are aimed at defending its territorial integrity.
“After years of unilateral concessions and flexibility by the previous administration, it’s time for the United States to push back against Iran’s support for terrorism, the regime’s menacing ballistic missile activities and its egregious human rights violations,” Rubio claimed in a press release.
“I look forward to working with the new administration to hold Iran fully accountable for both its non-nuclear and nuclear threats,” he added.
Young, a Republican from the US state of Indiana, said that Tehran remained a threat because of its support for terrorism and “aggressive development of ballistic missiles to threaten US allies, deployed troops, and eventually the US homeland.”
“This legislation would impose real consequences on Iran,” he added in the threatening statement.
Texas Senator Cornyn urged Congress and US President Donald Trump to “impose real economic consequences for Iran’s actions to make clear that the United States vehemently opposes Iran’s human rights abuses, terrorist activities around the world, and pursuit of ballistic missile capabilities.”
Tehran maintains that the US uses allegations of human rights violations as a tool for political pressure, while the human rights conditions remain dire in the country itself.
