Companies Still Face Risks Even If US Lifts Iran Sanctions, Republican Senators Say

A group of Republican senators urged U.S. businesses to continue to stay out of the Iranian market even if the U.S. reenters the Iranian nuclear deal, saying any sanctions relief will be short-lived. The lawmakers said that relief will be “severely limited” if Republicans win back majorities in the House and Senate and if the U.S. elects a Republican president in 2024. They also criticized the Biden administration’s plan to reenter the deal, calling the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action a “deeply flawed” agreement.

“Your member companies may see this potential removal of U.S. sanctions on Iran as a lucrative opportunity. Trust us, they should not,” the lawmakers wrote to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Financial Services Forum, the Business Roundtable and other industry groups May 12. The senators, including Sens. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, said U.S. companies will “risk exposure to individuals and companies that are intertwined with the malign activities of the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism.”

They also suggested that Congress could move unilaterally to keep certain sanctions against Iran. “Put simply,” they wrote, "any new Iran deal that does not address Iran’s nuclear program, ballistic and cruise missile development, support for terrorism, hostage-taking, gross human rights violations, and other malign behaviors will not receive durable, bipartisan support in the United States.”

The senators also expressed concern that U.S. negotiators may lift sanctions “even before Iran returns to compliance” with the deal. State Department officials have said they won’t lift sanctions until Iran comes back into compliance, and suggested last week that the U.S. could rejoin the JCPOA as early as this summer if talks between the two countries continue to progress (see 2105060044).