White House Opposes New House Proposal Regarding Nuclear Agreement

The White House says it opposes a proposal in the U.S. House of Representatives that conditions the implementation of the Iran nuclear agreement on the payment of millions of dollars in damages to victims of terrorist incidents supported by Iran. This proposal has the support of 100 members of the House and is set to be voted on Thursday, October 1st. In a statement released by the White House on Wednesday and reported by the Associated Press, the Obama administration described the proposal as undermining U.S. security and national interests. The proposal, drafted by Republican Representative Patrick Meehan of Pennsylvania, prohibits the U.S. President from lifting sanctions on Iran before Iran pays $43 billion in damages to victims of terrorism. This amount is the total of damages determined by U.S. courts in past rulings to compensate American victims of terrorist operations linked to Iran. For instance, in a case in April 2012, a U.S. court ordered Iran to pay nearly $45 million in compensation to American survivors of the 1983 Beirut suicide bombings and the families of the victims of this incident. At that time, the Islamic Jihad Organization claimed responsibility for the attacks, and some speculations emphasized Iran's role in this attack. Iran has been accused by the West of supporting terrorism, particularly for its support of Islamist and militant groups in Palestine and Lebanon, but it has always denied these allegations, describing its support for these groups as spiritual support. Patrick Meehan's new proposal in the House of Representatives is seen as the latest effort by Republicans opposed to the nuclear agreement to prevent its implementation. Previously, Republicans, who hold the majority in both the House and Senate, attempted to force the Obama administration to refrain from implementing the agreement or at least to use a veto to enforce it by voting against this proposal. However, despite opponents in the House showing through a symbolic vote that they had a strong majority against the nuclear agreement with 269 votes against and 162 votes in favor, Senate Republicans failed in three attempts to reach a conclusion on the sufficiency of negotiations before the deadline for review (September 17), and this proposal was removed from the agenda without a vote. Senate Republicans also attempted to condition the implementation of the nuclear agreement on 'recognizing Israel' and 'the release of American prisoners,' but this effort also failed. In this context, the end of the Senate review deadline and the failure of Republicans to reject the Iran agreement highlight the recent failures of Republicans in the U.S. Senate regarding the Iran agreement.