President Joe Biden is facing pressure to impose sanctions on Iran pursuant to legislation signed by his administration earlier this year.
Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), alongside Senator Jim Risch (R-ID) and U.S. Representatives Jim Banks (R-IN) and Mike Lawler (R-NY), wrote a letter to President Biden demanding he enforce laws potentially increasing sanctions on Iran.
The lawmakers referred to the Mahsa Amini Human Rights and Security Accountability Act (MAHSA) and the Stop Harboring Iranian Petroleum Act (SHIP).
MAHSA and SHIP require the federal government to consider sanctioning the Iranian supreme leader and Iranian entities while designing a plan to combat China’s circumvention of US sanctions on Iranian oil, respectively.
“We urge you to follow the law and promptly make sanctions determinations, impose appropriate sanctions, and report to Congress what determinations have been made and which sanctions have been imposed,” reads the letter.
The lawmakers emphasized their belief combatting Iran’s nefarious conduct will only be possible through bold diplomacy.
“No amount of appeasement to the Iranian regime will quell its unacceptable conduct,” continues the letter. “Only by exerting maximum pressure on members of the Iranian regime and connected individuals can we hope to stem this behavior.”
The letter comes amidst a nadir in US-Iran relationships, as the latter’s surreptitious anti-US activity has been recently exposed.
Namely, US intelligence officials recently unveiled individuals associated with Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign received stolen Trump campaign information from Iran.
The Federal Bureau of Intelligence (FBI), Central Intelligence Administration (CIA), and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) revealed the information.
According to a joint statement, “Iranian malicious cyber actors in late June and early July sent unsolicited emails” to Biden-Harris campaign staffers.
Iran, according to US intelligence, has engaged in a widespread attempt to undermine confidence in the upcoming elections.
The leakage of Trump campaign information is but one of several avenues Iran has exploited to attack the US, which have reportedly included planned assassination attempts.
Iran was reportedly planning to assassinate Trump before he suffered his first assassination attempt.
