A group of 32 Republican senators led by Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas wrote a letter to President Joe Biden on Monday outlining steps the administration should take if they seek to return the United States to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
The letter suggests that the administration submit any agreement reached with Iran to the Senate, a congressional oversight process that could block its implementation.
''We write to call attention to a range of obligations that your administration is statutorily mandated to fulfill in relation to Congressional oversight over any such agreement, and to ensure that your officials know we are committed to providing availability, assistance, and resources so you can fully meet these mandates,'' the letter reads.
''As a threshold matter, we reiterate our view that any agreement with Iran regarding its nuclear program is of such gravity for U.S. national security that by definition it is a treaty requiring Senate advice and consent,'' they added.
The Biden administration and their supporters have floated the possibility that the JCPOA does not fall under the requirements of the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015 because the exact original agreement would be reimplemented, The Hill reported.
Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, said the administration would probably argue that the INARA required congressional review was already done when the original deal cleared in 2015.
''I do not expect that the administration will say 'this is a new agreement and Congress has the authority under INARA to review it all over again,' because this is all about how the two parties implement an existing agreement,'' Kimball said.
The U.S. has been withdrawn from the agreement since 2018, when then-President Donald Trump left the Obama-era deal and reimposed sanctions against Iran, according to The Hill.
China, Russia, the United Kingdom and the European Union still participate in the agreement.
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