A group of Republican senators is pushing President Joe Biden to take a stronger stance on China and Iran with legislation that would aim to drive a wedge between the two countries.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) plans to lead a group of eight senators in introducing the Iran China Accountability Act on Tuesday. The bill would restrict Iran from striking a new nuclear deal with the United States unless Tehran distances itself from Beijing, according to a summary of the bill obtained by The Daily Wire.
The seven GOP co-sponsors are Sens. Kevin Cramer and John Hoeven of North Dakota, Ted Cruz of Texas, Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi, Marco Rubio and Rick Scott of Florida, and Thom Tillis of North Carolina.
“Iran would love nothing more than to enter into another nuclear deal that props up their terrorist activity and also benefits their fellow New Axis of Evil partner — Communist China,” Blackburn told The Daily Wire in a statement. “As Iran and the CCP commit egregious human rights abuses against their own citizens and Iran-backed Hamas enacts horrific violence against Israel, it has become increasingly critical that the Biden administration holds the Iranian regime fully accountable.”
“There must be no nuclear deal until we can ensure our national security interests are protected,” she said.
A version of the bill has been introduced by Republican lawmakers to the House or Senate every year since 2021. The legislation has received renewed support from GOP lawmakers following the terror attack by Hamas, an Iranian-backed group, on Israel on October 7.
The Iran China Accountability Act would require a two-thirds majority in the Senate to approve any new nuclear deal in that body. It would also freeze a nuclear deal unless Iran and China met a number of benchmarks, such as terminating security and military partnerships between the two and China releasing imprisoned Uyghurs. Iran would also have to verify the destruction of all chemical weapons and the material and infrastructure used to construct them.
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The legislation also condemns the terror group Hamas for attacks on Israel.
Striking a new nuclear deal with Iran has been a top foreign policy priority for the Biden administration. In October, the Senate approved the White House’s preferred diplomat to handle U.S. relations with Israel, Jack Lew, the architect of the Iran nuclear deal. Israel opposed the Iran nuclear deal when it was first struck under former President Barack Obama and has been skeptical of Biden’s efforts to revive the agreement.
Earlier this year, Washington agreed to a prisoner swap with Tehran that included the release of $6 billion in frozen Iranian oil money. The House last week passed a bill that would freeze those funds with significant bipartisan support, setting up a potentially embarrassing setback for the White House and its goals with Iran.
A group of 26 Republican senators warned the White House in August against attempting to bypass Congress with any new nuclear deal.
“We are also worried that your administration is attempting to sidestep Congress and pursue other pathways to financially compensate Iran in an attempt to renegotiate a successor to the ill-fated 2015 nuclear deal,” the senators said in a letter. “Any agreement with the Iranian regime that entails financial reward for malign behavior is wholly unacceptable.”