WASHINGTON — The Republican-led House overwhelmingly approves bipartisan legislation that would slap new sanctions on Iran for its pursuit of long-range ballistic missiles without derailing the 2015 international nuclear accord that US President Donald Trump has threatened to unravel.
Reps. Ed Royce and Eliot Engel sponsored the bill, which requires the Trump administration to identify for sanctions the companies and individuals inside and outside of Iran that are the main suppliers of Tehran’s ballistic missile programs.
Lawmakers voted 423-2 to pass the measure.
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., left, speaks with the committee’s ranking member Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y. during a hearing on Iran before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2017 on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Royce, a California Republican, is chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee and Engel, who is from New York, is the panel’s top Democrat. Both opposed the nuclear agreement when it was forged two years ago, but neither lawmaker is in favor of ditching the deal now.
Lawmakers are aiming to hold Iran accountable for what they say is reckless, destabilizing behavior while they debate how to meet Trump’s new demands for fixing what he and other Republicans argue are serious flaws with the nuclear agreement.
The vote on the Iran sanctions bill comes a day after the House passed bipartisan bills to block the flow of illicit money to Iran-backed Hezbollah and to sanction the group for using civilians as human shields. Lawmakers consider Hezbollah to be Tehran’s leading terrorist proxy.
— AP
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