The bill is non-binding, and seemingly is just the latest in a series of congressional bills objecting to President Donald Trump’s policy on Iran, antiwar.com reported.

Trump will almost certainly object to this, as he’s been an opponent of the Iranian nuclear deal from the start.

Specifically, the Iran Diplomacy Act inter alia calls for:

The United States should support efforts to return all sides to not less than full compliance with its commitments under the JCPOA and refrain from threatening US allies with economic penalties, as well as negotiate an interim agreement that provides Iran with tailored, temporary economic relief in exchange for verifiable measures by Iran that reverse its “violations” of the JPCOA.

The United States and the other P5+1 parties should seek out negotiations with Iran, prior to 2023, towards a new agreement that closes off all Iranian paths to a nuclear weapon.

The United States should not seek to “snap back” United Nations Security Council Sanctions as that right should be reserved for current parties to the JCPOA.

The United States should issue waivers for cooperative projects specified in the JCPOA, all of which make it more difficult for Iran to reconstitute activities that pose a proliferation risk.

The United States should create an environment in which financial institutions and entities can make practical use of existing exemptions and mechanisms “allowing for the sale of agricultural commodities, food, medicine, and medical devices to Iran,” as well as other humanitarian trade.

Sen. Markey argued that the US pullout from the deal “created a nuclear crisis where none existed,” others argued the US and Iran should both come back to the nuclear deal as originally written.

Iran clearly would be willing to do so, if the US returned to the deal.

Indeed, the big issue with the deal right now is that the US withdrew from the pact and has continued to keep other parties from complying with the terms of the deal.

On January 14, 2020, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom triggered the JCPOA’s Dispute Resolution Mechanism in an attempt to address what they called as Iran’s breaches of the agreement, all of which followed the Trump administration’s unilateral exit from the deal on May 8, 2018.

Prior to that point, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the US intelligence community-verified that Iran had lived up to its end of the agreement – which extended the “breakout time” for a nuclear bomb from a span of weeks to over one year, middletownpress.com reported.

In response to the US move, Tehran has so far rowed back on its nuclear commitments five times in compliance with Articles 26 and 36 of the JCPOA but stressed that its retaliatory measures will be reversible as soon as Europe finds practical ways to shield the mutual trade from the US sanctions.

“Since President Trump took office he has drastically elevated tensions with Iran and brought us to the brink of war. President Trump’s so-called campaign of ‘maximum pressure,’ has resulted only in maximum failure,” said Senator Van Hollen.

“This legislation establishes a clear and cohesive plan to address relations with Iran, deescalate tensions in the region, and bring all sides back into compliance with the agreement to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. In light of President Trump’s abandonment of US global leadership on this issue, the Congress must act.”

The administration’s withdrawal from the JCPOA, followed by inhumane ‘maximum pressure sanctions,’ have created instability in the Middle East, put us on a war footing with Iran, and caused untold human suffering for Iranian people, who now don’t have access to many critical life-saving medicines,” said Hassan El-Tayyab, Legislative Manager for Middle East Policy, FCNL.

“This approach has been a maximum failure and has done little to advance peace, national security, and human rights. The American people want a restrained foreign policy and the onus is on Congress to find a pathway for peace and diplomacy, which is exactly what Senator Markey’s bill attempts to do.”

“President Trump’s Iran policy is a prime example of how he has created new nuclear crises where none existed or where they had successfully been tamed through diplomacy,” said Senator Markey.

“If President Trump is serious about his declaration that ‘Iran will never have a nuclear weapon,’ he should recommit to the agreement which verifiably shut off all of Iran’s pathways to a nuclear bomb and abandon his failed Iran strategy that has brought us to the brink of war, not once but twice.”

“Under the Iran nuclear agreement, we had an effective nuclear deal that restricted its capability to develop nuclear weapons,” said Senator Feinstein. “That agreement was our best chance for peace after decades of hostilities, but President Trump’s decision to withdraw from the agreement increases tensions and has the potential to increase nuclear proliferation. It’s my hope the United States will eventually return to the deal. The policy outlined in this bill would set us on a path to do so and I’m proud to cosponsor it.”

“The Iran nuclear agreement was an enormously important achievement. The Obama administration worked with our international partners to put a lid on Iran’s nuclear program and create the opportunity for further diplomacy with Iran,” said Senator Sanders.

“Trump’s reckless withdrawal from the agreement, which was done against the advice of his own top security officials, undermined American credibility and contributed to the dangerous escalation between our countries that we are witnessing. I am pleased to co-sponsor this bill to send a clear message: we strongly believe that the United States should rejoin that agreement and work with our allies—not against them as Trump is doing—to address a broader set of issues in the region.”

“The United States should work with its allies and partners to peacefully prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, but instead the president has unilaterally withdrawn from a successful nuclear deal, re-imposed sweeping sanctions that have harmed the Iranian people, and risked starting a war with Iran,” said Senator Warren. “I’m glad to cosponsor this bill that puts diplomacy first and rejects another endless war in the Middle East.”

“The Iran nuclear agreement was a historic achievement for US national security and the security of our allies,” said Joe Cirincione, the President of Ploughshares Fund.

The US violation of the agreement initiated the current crisis and brought America and Iran to the brink of war. Returning to the accord and resuming diplomatic negotiations with Iran is essential to preventing a disastrous new war in the Middle East. We applaud the leadership of these Senators and encourage their colleagues to pass the Iran Diplomacy Act as quickly as possible, Cirincione said.

“The JCPOA was a landmark nuclear agreement, and it successfully barred Iran’s path to a nuclear weapon until President Trump tore up the agreement,” said Andrew Albertson, Executive Director, Foreign Policy for America.

“But the good news is that we can still find our way back from the brink. And the solution isn’t to send more American troops to the Middle East – the solution is diplomacy. This legislation recognizes what our allies are shouting at the top of their lungs, but the administration fails to understand: the best way to effectively address our nuclear concerns with Iran is by ensuring all sides are complying with the JCPOA.”

“J Street welcomes the introduction of the Iran Diplomacy Act, a bill that seeks to return all parties to comply with the JCPOA in order to deescalate the current risk of a catastrophic war and again block Iran’s path to a nuclear weapon,” said Dylan Williams, vice president of Government Affairs, J Street.  “This bill would provide a critical off-ramp to the current escalation cycle and should be taken up urgently by the senate.”

“Once again Senator Markey shows his decades-long leadership of protecting Americans from nuclear weapons by introducing important legislation that would get the US back into the successful international Iran agreement, choose diplomacy over a disastrous war and ensure respect for human rights,” commented Paul Kawika Martin the Senior Director for Policy and Political Affairs at Peace Action.

Eight senators of Trump’s Republican Party, which enjoys a majority, bucked their leadership to join Democrats in a resolution that bars any military action against Iran without an explicit vote from Congress.

“The Senate just sent a clear shot across the bow – a bipartisan majority of senators don’t want the president waging war without congressional approval,” Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer said after the vote.

The resolution will head to the Democratic-led House of Representatives, which passed a similar text last month.

Much like an earlier attempt by Congress to end US support for Saudi Arabia’s devastating offensive in Yemen, Trump is nearly certain to issue a veto, with lawmakers lacking the two-thirds majority to overturn it.

Democratic Senator Tim Kaine introduced the resolution after Trump ordered a drone strike that assassinated Iran’s top commander Lt. Gen. Qassem Soleimani in Iraq on Jan. 3.  The targeted killing concerned that the United States was rushing into another Middle East war without debate.

While warning of dire consequences of an escalating conflict with Iran, Kaine said his main point was to restore the authority of Congress to declare war, as spelled out in the US Constitution.

“An offensive war requires a congressional debate and vote. This should not be a controversial proposition,” Kaine said in a speech on the Senate floor.

“The bill getting to his desk is an indication that we’re listening to our constituents, and we’re telling him blundering into another war would be a bad idea,” Kaine told a news conference after the vote.

Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth put concerns about Trump more bluntly.

“My 21-month-old toddler has better self-control than this president does,” she told reporters.

Tensions have soared between the United States and Iran since 2018 when Trump withdrew from a nuclear accord negotiated by his predecessor Barack Obama and imposed sweeping sanctions on Tehran.

Republican Senator Jim Inhofe denied Trump was seeking war and described the assassination of Soleimani as self-defense.

But eight Republicans – all of whom voted to acquit Trump in his impeachment trial – joined the Democrats.

Senator Susan Collins, a closely watched moderate Republican, said the resolution will show that “no president has the authority to commit our military to sustained conflict.”

Among other Republicans who voted yes was Mike Lee, who said a classified session by the Trump administration after the assassination of Soleimani was uninformative and the “worst” defense briefing he has ever received.

Republican Senator Todd Young, who voted for the resolution, said it should not have been necessary, but Congress had for years “attempted to pass the buck” to the president when decisions about military action had to be made.

“It’s time to do our job,” Young said in a statement explaining his vote.

AFP and Reuters contributed to this story.

Bolton wrote in the forthcoming book that Trump told him that he wanted to withhold hundreds of millions of dollars in security aid from Ukraine until it helped him with politically charged investigations, including into Democratic rival Joe Biden.

Trump’s legal team has repeatedly insisted that the Republican president never tied the suspension of military assistance to the country to investigations that he wanted into Biden and his son.

The account immediately gave Democrats new fuel in their pursuit of sworn testimony from Bolton and other witnesses, a question expected to be taken up later this week by the Republican-led Senate. After Bolton situation, The impeachment trial resumed Monday afternoon with arguments from the defense team of Trump.

Bolton’s account was first reported by The New York Times. When the Times report went online Sunday night, the seven House Democratic managers immediately called on all senators to insist that Bolton be called as a witness and provide his notes and other relevant documents. Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Senate’s top Democrat, issued the same call.

Trump denied the claims in a series of tweets early Monday. “I NEVER told John Bolton that the aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into Democrats, including the Bidens,” Trump said in a tweet. “In fact, he never complained about this at the time of his very public termination. If John Bolton said this, it was only to sell a book.”

Trump said people could look at transcripts of his call and statements by Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelinskiy that there was no pressure for such investigations to get the aid.

Bolton, who acrimoniously left the White House a day before Trump ultimately released the Ukraine aid on Sept. 11, has already told lawmakers that he is willing to testify, despite the president’s order barring aides from cooperating in the probe.

“Americans know that a fair trial must include both the documents and witnesses blocked by the President — that starts with Mr. Bolton,” the impeachment managers said in a statement.

While the Republican-controlled Senate is highly unlikely to remove Trump from office, it is important for him to try to blunt the Democratic accusations to limit political damage to his bid for a second term.

The impeachment trial rules provide for a two-step process on whether to subpoena witness and documents, with an initial vote on whether to consider doing so and, if approved, subsequent votes to actually call witnesses or demand documents.

Democrats argue this could allow Republicans to have it both ways – allowing them to first vote “yes” on whether to proceed and then vote “no” on actually allowing witnesses or documents.

As a result, vulnerable Senate Republicans could make the case to moderates that they had voted in favor of witnesses in the first vote while avoiding alienating Trump supporters by refusing to actually call any in later votes.

If the Senate called witnesses or demanded documents, the trial could lengthen. If not, the Senate could vote toward the end of the week on whether to remove Trump from office.

If that were to happen the trial could be over before the first US voting contest takes place in Iowa on Feb. 3 and before Trump is scheduled to deliver the annual State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on Feb. 4.

AP and Reuters contributed to this story.

“Today the House takes the next step forward as we establish the procedures for open hearings of Trump impeachment probe… so that the public can see the facts for themselves,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Washington’s top Democrat, Iran News covers what AFP wrote.

“What is at stake in all of this is nothing less than our democracy.”

The House of Representatives voted along party lines, 232 to 196, to pass a resolution that lays out guidelines for the next stages of Trump impeachment probe

All Republicans opposed the measure, despite agitating for weeks for such a vote that could end the secretive depositions and bring the process into the open.

Democrats are seeking to learn whether Trump abused his presidential power by pressuring a foreign government to investigate a domestic political rival.

Trump has repeatedly branded the inquiry illegitimate and said it is politically motivated, a theme he returned to in the wake of the vote.

“The Greatest Witch Hunt In American History!” he said on Twitter.

The White House accused opposition Democrats of being “fundamentally un-American” in their “unhinged obsession with this illegitimate impeachment.”

“Democrats are choosing every day to waste time on a sham impeachment — a blatantly partisan attempt to destroy the President,” Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham said in the statement after the vote.

Trump meanwhile called on his fellow Republicans to support him even as he faced the embarrassing likelihood of becoming the third president in history to be impeached and placed on trial for removal in the Senate, over an alleged scheme to extort Ukraine’s help to get him reelected in 2020.

The embattled president retweeted a rallying cry from Fox News host Laura Ingraham that called on Republicans to “stand together and defend the leader of their party against these smears.”

 

‘False defenses’ to prevent Trump impeachment probe

Trump is accused of withholding military aid to compel Ukraine to mount a corruption probe against his Democratic election rival Joe Biden — effectively using US foreign policy in an illegal shakedown for his personal political benefit.

Congressional investigators have heard a steady flow of corroborating evidence from government officials testifying behind closed doors on Capitol Hill.

The landmark resolution did not have unanimous Democratic approval. Two Democrats joined all Republicans in opposing the measure, although former Republican Justin Amash, now an independent, supported it — and offered a searing warning to his old party.

“Excusing his misbehavior will forever tarnish your name,” he tweeted to Republicans regarding Trump. “History will not look kindly on disingenuous, frivolous, and false defenses of this man.”

The inquiry now moves into the public eye – giving Americans the chance to hear on live television the evidence against Trump.

The House Intelligence Committee, which has led the inquiry so far, will host open hearings, presenting witnesses and documentary evidence and allowing Republicans to challenge the case against Trump.

The minority can also suggest subpoenas but majority Democrats have final say, a rule that has angered Republicans.

Democrats argue that the vote neutralizes a key Republican talking point that the inquiry has no validity because the full House did not sign on.

If the case against Trump is deemed strong enough, the House Judiciary Committee will draw up formal charges against the president — articles of impeachment — to be voted on by the full House.

It remains unclear how quickly the process can advance. Some say the Democratic-led House could impeach Trump by year end.

He would then be tried in the Senate, controlled by Republicans.

Nearly a dozen witnesses so far have confirmed in House depositions the accusations that, in a concerted effort with top aides and his personal lawyer, Trump pressured Ukraine to help his 2020 re-election effort by producing dirt on Biden, the former vice president.

The allegations focus on a July 25 phone call in which Trump pressed Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky to open investigations into Biden and Biden’s son, who worked with a Ukraine energy firm.

The White House has released a rough transcript of the call, and Trump said in an interview published Thursday that he hoped to read it on TV to the American people.

In potentially damning testimony Thursday, the White House National Security Council’s top Russia expert, Tim Morrison, confirmed that a diplomat close to Trump told Morrison that military aid would be withheld until Kiev committed to investigating Biden.