Senate panel OKs sanctions on Iran

New penalties are broadest since the 2015 nuclear deal.

The Senate WASHINGTON — Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday approved the most sweeping sanctions against Iran since the United States and five other nations reached an agreement with Tehran in 2015 to sharply limit that nation’s nuclear capability.

The committee also warned Russia that it was almost certain to be the next target.

Because Iran has complied with the nuclear accord, the Senate committee had to find other reasons to impose the sanctions, and linked the penalties to Iran’s continued support for terrorism and its human rights violations, among other concerns.

But the timing of the longplanned punishment was awkward, coming right after Iranians overwhelmingly re-elected President Hassan Rouhani, who has moved to expand personal freedoms in the country and integrate its economy with the West.

The Trump administration has supported new sanctions against Iran, which were approved 18-3 by the committee and could receive a full Senate vote as early as next month.

But Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had pleaded for more time before new sanctions were imposed on Russia, hoping to use the first few months of the Trump administration to fundamentally change a relationship he recently said had hit its lowest point in years.

Lawmakers on Thursday strongly hinted that they were no longer interested in giving Tillerson much additional rope.

And the drive in both parties to impose sanctions is a clear outgrowth of the investigations into whether Trump’s associates had improper connections to Russian officials during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee — the committee’s Republican chairman and often a defender of Tillerson’s approach — said he had seen “no difference whatsoever” in Russia’s conduct, citing its “work against our interest” in Syria.

“Unless he can come in and demonstrably show us — and I don’t think he will be able to, based on the intelligence I’ve read — we are going to move ahead with a Russia sanctions bill during this next work period,” Corker said of Tillerson.

During the presidential campaign Trump called the Iran nuclear deal a “disaster” that would eventually allow Iran to produce its own nuclear weapons.

But as president he has been loath to make good on his promise to scrap the accord.

J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE / ASSOCIATED PRESS U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the Senate will seek a Russia sanctions bill next.