A bipartisan letter from 35 members of Congress called on European parties to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal to “snapback” sanctions on Iran.
Reps Claudia Tenney (R-NY) and Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) led the letter to the leaders of the UK, France, and Germany, urging them to trigger “snapback,” which allows any party to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action to unilaterally revert to pre-2015 sanctions on Iran if it violates the deal.
Per the JCPOA’s “sunset clauses,” the conventional arms embargo on Iran was already lifted; snapback would bring that back, as well as stop the lifting of sanctions on long-range drones and missiles this year and the expiration of nuclear sanctions in 2025.
The representatives pointed to “Iran’s significant noncompliance” with the nuclear agreement.
“We ask that you stand together with us…to counter Iran’s rapid progress toward nuclear weaponization,” they wrote, in the letter first published by Jewish Insider. “Iran’s rapid ascension to becoming a nuclear threshold state and continued noncompliance with the JCPOA is incontestable and a matter of public record, having been verified by several entities, including the independent technical experts at the International Atomic Energy Agency.”
A drone is launched during a military exercise in an undisclosed location in Iran, in this handout image obtained on August 25, 2022 (credit: IRANIAN ARMY/WANA/REUTERS)The members of Congress argued that “time is running out to curb their nuclear ambitions.”
Iran violated the sanctions by arming Russia
Sanctions on Iran’s export of long-range drones and ballistic missiles are set to expire on October 18. Iran has been in violation of those sanctions, arming Russia in its war in Ukraine, which makes it “of the utmost importance for you to begin the process of triggering snapback sanctions before the October 2023 expiration,” the US representatives wrote.
Other violations include uranium enrichment over the JCPOA limit of 3.67% to the 60% level, and to a lesser extent, to 84%. Uranium must be enriched to 90% purity for a nuclear breakout, though larger quantities of less-enriched uranium can also produce a bomb.
Iran has also accumulated an enriched uranium stockpile beyond the permitted 300 kg; the most recent IAEA report says they have over 10 times as much enriched uranium.
“As our great nations have seen countless times, appeasing belligerent nations does not lead to peace, it only feeds even greater threats to international peace and security.”
From the US representatives letter
The US left the Iran nuclear deal in 2018. Snapback sanctions were not in the JCPOA itself, but in a UN Security Council resolution passed at the time; therefore, Washington argued that it could still trigger the mechanism. However, when the US attempted to do so in 2020, other JCPOA parties rejected it.
As such, the members of Congress noted the disagreement on the matter, and “respectfully ask[ed] that the E3 consider taking this important step.”
“As our great nations have seen countless times, appeasing belligerent nations does not lead to peace, it only feeds even greater threats to international peace and security,” the US representatives wrote.
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