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Republicans in US Congress threaten Iran with more sanctions

Nuclear Program Materials 15 January 2015 04:11 (UTC +04:00)
Republican lawmakers have once again threatened to bring an anti-Iran bill to the floor of the US Congress, if the ongoing nuclear talks with Tehran fail.
Republicans in US Congress threaten Iran with more sanctions

Republican lawmakers have once again threatened to bring an anti-Iran bill to the floor of the US Congress, if the ongoing nuclear talks with Tehran fail, Press TV reported.

Republicans in the Senate plan to vote on the bipartisan bill well before President Barack Obama's team finishes the current round of international nuclear negotiations.

The Arkansas Senator, Tom Cotton, has said that the Congress will vote on any agreement President Barack Obama makes on Iran's nuclear program.

The Republican said if the Congress fails to prevent Obama from lifting the sanctions on Iran, he would then work with the next administration to re-impose them.

According to US State Department officials, Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif held "substantive" talks for about five hours in Geneva on Wednesday evening.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the talks ended at about 06:00 p.m. local time (1700 GMT), but the two diplomats were set to hold a second meeting after about 90 minutes at a hotel in Geneva.

"They had substantive meetings for approximately five hours today and they discussed a broad range of issues with a small group of staff from each side," one senior official said.

On Tuesday, the US State Department warned the Republican-controlled Congress about imposing further sanctions against Iran during nuclear negotiations.

State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said that additional sanctions violate the Joint Plan of Action that was agreed between Iran and six world powers, adding that Obama would veto sanctions legislation if it is passed.

In November 2014, Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council - Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States - plus Germany agreed to extend the Joint Plan of Action to July 1, 2015.

"If there's a bill that's signed into law, and it is US law, in our mind it is a violation of the Joint Plan of Action-which, as we've said, could encourage Iran to violate it," Harf said.

"A sanctions bill... that is passed and signed into law by the president, which we've said we will not do... would be a violation of the JPOA," she added.

With control of Republicans over both houses of Congress last week, they will put pressure on other lawmakers to vote on Iran sanctions legislation.

Republican sources on Capitol Hill said new Iran measures will be a top priority for the new Congress.

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