NEWARK, NJ – U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ), senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and author of the Iran Sanctions Relief Oversight Act of 2015, issued the following statement in reaction to the announcement by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) allowing the first wave of economic sanctions relief for Iran under the JCPOA.

"Although I disagree with the details of the Iran deal, the United States and the international community must be completely focused on ensuring that Iran is held accountable for meeting all of its terms under the JCPOA. Unfortunately we’re already making concessions in that respect. With its announcement today, the IAEA confirmed they could not determine the possible military dimensions of Iran’s nuclear program – except to assess that, contrary to its claims, Iran was working at certain points to weaponize its nuclear program. With little known about Iran’s true intent, we find ourselves today opening a floodgate of frozen assets to a regime that is bent on opposing our interests.

“As I have outlined before, we need a strategic approach that contemplates and addresses the threat that Iran poses in total, not just with respect to nuclear proliferation. Iran’s malign activities of destabilizing regional adventurism – whether in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon or across the Middle East – has already cost American lives; their conventional weapons development in contravention of UNSC resolutions and international will is well-documented, and their support for terrorism and other threats against the United States, our interests, and our allies remain unchanged.

“The Administration has at its discretion the tough sanctions it needs to deter these malign activities, and the Administration has conceded that invoking non-nuclear sanctions for specific malign activities like test launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles would not violate the terms of the JCPOA. We should use these tools now, unapologetically, to protect American national security interests.

“We must also refrain from shortsighted thinking and look to the future. The Iran Sanctions Act, which expires at the end of the year, is an effective snap-back measure. I again call on the Administration to support the bill I introduced in the Senate to renew those sanctions. And beyond renewing them, I believe we need to aggressively implement them, particularly in cases where Iran clearly violates international will. The United States must stop allowing Iran to test our limits unchecked.”

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