WASHINGTON – Republican lawmakers are vowing to take a much harder line against Iran when they take control both chambers in January, eyeing stricter sanctions against Tehran.
GOP lawmakers are increasingly frustrated with the Obama administration’s resistance to new sanctions and determination to continue talks with Iranian leaders. They intend to press for stepped-up economic sanctions and more saber-rattling from Washington.
Rep. Tom Cotton, a Foreign Affairs Committee member and senator-elect, told reporters Wednesday that on its nuclear program, Iran is slow-walking the Obama administration and gradually “getting everything it wants.”
Cotton predicted Republicans will push legislation that would call for more far-reaching sanctions against Tehran to punish the regime for not giving up its nuclear arms program.
Specifically, during a roundtable with reporters, he mentioned tougher financial sanctions that make it “as hard to conduct financial transactions with the regime as possible.” He also endorsed sanctions that squeeze Iran’s oil industry.
He and House Intelligence Committee member Mike Pompeo, R-Kan., said more muscular sanctions could turn internal public opinion against the Iranian regime.
“This is a country that depends on trade for continued stability of regime,” Pompeo said, adding with beefier sanctions he thinks “things will look a lot different.”
Pompeo said the US must also be willing to strike Iran’s nuclear program, saying it could be destroyed or significantly crippled “in under 2,000 sorties.”
Earlier at the same Foreign Policy Initiative-sponsored forum, Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., the incoming Foreign Relations Committee chairman, said of Congress and the Obama administration agreeing on a new sanctions package: “It’s hard to see why that would be a problem.”
Corker also said he has become convinced that any potential deal with Iran would be “very short-term in nature.” ■
Email: jbennett@defensenews.com.
