Texas senator Ted Cruz on Thursday suggested that President Donald Trump buck members of the foreign policy establishment who are “desperately” trying to save the 2015 nuclear deal and not waive sanctions lifted under the agreement ahead of a series of related deadlines.
“Waiving the sanctions on the ayatollah while protesters are dying in the streets would be a serious mistake,” Cruz told THE WEEKLY STANDARD, referring to the anti-regime protests that swept Iran starting in late December and have resulted in thousands of arrests. “We should be doing everything humanly possible to support, to encourage those protests, to tell the Iranian people, we stand with you.”
Trump must decide in coming days whether to continue waiving sanctions on Iran that were lifted under the nuclear deal. Not waiving the sanctions, Cruz said, is a step that “naturally follows” from the president’s refusal to certify a condition related to the nuclear deal in October, namely that continued sanctions relief to Iran is proportionate to the measures taken by Iran under the deal.
But he noted that there are elements in Washington strongly pushing to preserve the deal.
“There are voices in the foreign policy establishment world in Washington who are desperately trying to save the Iran deal, even though it has failed,” he said. “It endangers American lives, it endangers the lives of our allies.”
The leaders of the Senate Foreign Relations committee, Republican Bob Corker and Democrat Ben Cardin, have been discussing a legislative fix with the administration that could satisfy a months-old demand from the president to resolve the deal’s flaws. Trump warned in October that if administration officials, working with Congress and European allies, cannot come together on a solution to these flaws, he would terminate the agreement.
The fix would likely amend 2015 nuclear deal oversight legislation known as the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act (INARA). Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told the Associated Press on Friday that the changes could could come this week, though Corker told TWS on Tuesday that that was unlikely. “We’re at an early stage as far as congressional consideration of legislation,” Cardin said Thursday.
The Maryland Democrat hesitated to describe recent talks with the White House as “negotiations” and noted that Trump officials are still working on winning European support—a prerequisite for Democratic buy-in.
“They’re still working on talking to Europe to see whether they can get that type of commitment,” he told TWS. “Senator Corker and I both set the stage two months ago when we said, you’ve got to get Europe on board and you can’t violate the [nuclear deal].”
Cardin said he does not have a copy of draft legislation, but said that, to his knowledge, the administration has been distributing copies to the Europeans. “I believe that language has changed over time,” he said. “I’m not even sure where they are on that.”
Corker said Tuesday that progress is being made toward the INARA fix, and cited that progress as a basis for issuing sanctions waivers. He suggested to reporters on Wednesday that an Iran agreement could be attached to must-pass legislation in coming months.
The president laid out a number of the deal’s flaws in October, including its failure to address Iran’s missile program and its expiring restrictions on Iran’s nuclear activity. Hawkish Republicans would want to ensure that a legislative fix includes a ‘snapback’ mechanism that would re-impose sanctions on Iran if it crosses certain thresholds, some of which could be related to nuclear inspections of military sites or missile launches.
Asked whether the snapback mechanisms could be a sticking point, Cardin said, “we have not talked yet about it.”
Trump is also facing another deadline to report to Congress on four conditions related to the nuclear deal, a recurring 90-day certification mandated in INARA that administration officials are hoping to amend.
The Associated Press reported Wednesday that the president is expected to waive the nuclear deal-related sanctions and pair that action with non-nuclear sanctions on Iran, including penalties for ballistic missile testing and human rights abuses.
Florida senator Marco Rubio, who has expressed skepticism over a legislative fix, advised the president on Thursday to slap Iran with fresh sanctions over its non-nuclear activities should he grant the nuclear deal sanctions waivers.
“He should … impose new sanctions against elements of the Iranian government, including the Central Bank of Iran and other Iranian banks, that are involved in or facilitating the regime’s human rights abuses against Iranian protesters, its ballistic missile program, or its support for terrorism,” Rubio said in a statement.
