Help Block Bill to Undermine Iran Nuclear Deal

From Peace Action (http://www.peace-action.org/):

Congress is at it again. Last week, Senators Corker (R-TN) and Menendez (D-NJ) introduced a bill to impose a flurry of new sanctions on Iran, threatening to undermine the nuclear agreement and increasing the risk of war.

Some of these Senators may have signed onto the bill with the belief that it wouldn’t harm the Iran deal, but some of them, like Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK), probably signed on in hopes of undermining the deal. After all, when the Senate was considering levying diplomacy-killing sanctions at the height of delicate negotiations in 2015, Cotton proudly confessed that “the end of these negotiations isn’t an unintended consequence of congressional action. It is very much an intended consequence – a feature, not a bug.”

Please write your Senators today and ask them to oppose the Corker-Menendez bill at http://org.salsalabs.com/o/161/p/dia/action4/common/public/?action_KEY=21501.

By piling on sanctions against Iran, the Corker-Menendez bill would violate the spirit, if not the letter, of the agreement, escalating tensions and threatening to unravel the only effective means of ensuring Iran does not obtain nuclear weapons. The bill would re-impose sanctions on some of the same entities that received sanctions relief under the agreement, which may violate the letter of the agreement, and give President Trump, whose administration has had an openly hostile posture towards Iran, broader authority to sanction Iran in ways that could further violate the agreement.

Equally troubling is the bill’s designation of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a branch of Iran’s armed forces, as a terrorist organization. Given sanctions already in place targeting the IRGC, the designation would be a redundant provocation; a symbolic jab with no upside. Military and intelligence officials also oppose the move because it could put U.S. forces stationed in Iraq at odds with Iran-backed militias, potentially putting American lives at risk.

Tell your Senators to stand by the nuclear agreement with Iran and oppose the Corker-Menendez bill.

The legislation was likely timed to coincide with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s (AIPAC) conference in D.C. this week. AIPAC has long supported ever harsher sanctions on Iran, and lobbied furiously against the Iran nuclear agreement in 2015.

Today at the conference, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) actually took the opportunity to promote war with Iran, claiming that in an attempt to keep all options on the table, the Obama administration “blurred the most important one, and that’s a determined military campaign to end Iran’s nuclear program.” Unfortunately, Republicans in Congress are still working to get us into a war with Iran under the guise of “holding Iran accountable,” and it’s up to concerned citizens like you to make sure your Senators don’t fall for the legislative misdirection.

Email your Senators today and make sure they get the message that this bill would undermine the nuclear agreement, and therefore must be opposed.

As we work to oppose the emergence of a new nuclear arms race and to advance the goal of a world free of nuclear weapons, we’re all for making sure no more countries acquire nuclear weapons. Maintaining the Iran nuclear agreement is the only effective way to ensure Iran’s potential pathways to a bomb remain blocked. Join us in telling Congress not to mess with the nuclear deal.

Thank you for standing with us.