A fresh divide is emerging between some Trump administration
officials and hard-line opponents of Iran in the Senate over how far to go in
the White House’s “maximum pressure” campaign against the Islamic Republic.
In a letter to President Donald Trump this week, a group of
Republican senators demanded that Secretary of State Michael Pompeo stop
letting Iran continue its limited civilian nuclear research program.
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| Mike Pompeo |
At issue are three waivers the Trump administration granted
after it withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal last year. They allow Iran to work
with nations that remain in the deal at three sites -- Fordow, Bushehr and Arak
-- to ensure it doesn’t seek to enrich uranium to high levels. It’s part of an
effort to limit the risk of nuclear weapons proliferation.
In their April 9 letter to Trump, six Republican senators
including Ted Cruz of Texas, Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Marco Rubio of Florida
argued that the administration shouldn’t extend the waivers when they expire in
early May.
“There is extensive evidence Iran channeled its nuclear
weapons program through civil nuclear projects after 2003,” the senators wrote
in the letter seen by Bloomberg News. They urged the president to “finally end
all U.S. implementation” of the 2015 deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive
Plan of Action.
The nuclear exceptions are up for renewal even as the
administration must weigh extending waivers that allow a select group of
governments to keep buying Iranian oil without facing sanctions.
Some within the administration, including National Security
Advisor John Bolton, have argued those waivers also should be revoked. On the
other side is Pompeo -- normally seen as among the toughest Trump aides on Iran
-- whose State Department advisers have argued that the exceptions fit broader
U.S. interests including keeping oil markets stable.
The fight over both sets of waivers has exposed a rare
division between hard-line and harder-line opponents of Tehran. This week the
Trump administration designated the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, an elite
branch of Iran’s military, as a foreign terrorist organization.
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