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US proposes new Iran sanctions

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The US House of Representative overwhelmingly passed a bill yesterday that would impose new sanctions on Iran if it continues to develop long-range ballistic missiles.

This is the forth bill in two days that targets Iran and its proxy organisations.

The new law demands that the US identify companies and individuals inside and outside of Iran that are the main suppliers for Iran’s ballistic missile programs and impose sanctions on them. The bill carried almost unanimous bi-partisan support and passed 423-2. The bill aims to hold Iran accountable for “reckless, destabilising behaviour” as part of US efforts to implement President Trump’s new approach to Iran for fixing, what he and other Republicans argue, are serious flaws with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPoA) nuclear agreement.

US Representative Ed Royce, one of the sponsors of the bill and Republican chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said the international nuclear deal should be strictly enforced by Washington working with its allies. Royce said that “the United States must respond to the full range of threats, with this bill … that is what we are doing today”. Royce wants the US and other nations that are party to the accord to “enforce the hell out of it”.

The US Congress is also seeking to provide international inspectors with better access to nuclear sites in Iran and to revisit the “sunset clause” of the nuclear deal that allows Iran to renew their capacity to build a nucealr bomb ten years after the deal.

The vote on the Iran sanctions bill followed three other bills – one to impose new sanctions on anyone that supplies weapons to Hezbollah, the second imposed sanctions on Iran and Hezbollah for using civilians as human shields, and the third urged the EU to designate Hezbollah a terrorist organization.

In response, Hezbollah condemned the US moves, calling it an “aggression” against Lebanon. In a statement, Hezbollah saw the measures as a “blatant intervention in Lebanese internal affairs, a violation of Lebanese sovereignty and an unacceptable targeting of the Lebanese people”.

Israel’s Minister for Intelligence, Israel Katz, said while on a visit to Japan that  “If international efforts led these days by US President Trump don’t help stop Iran attaining nuclear capabilities, Israel will act militarily by itself”.