President Donald Trump on Sunday called for Congress to add Iran to the Russia sanction bill, further undermining an initial agreement aimed at ending sanctions for Iran as the ceasefire progressed.
But Trump is instead seeking to weaken the memorandum of understanding reached between the U.S. and Iran as hostilities have escalated and two U.S. service members were killed in Jordan on Saturday.
“Republicans should add Iran to the Russian Sanctions Bill. That’s what Lindsey wanted to do, and it was going to happen. IMPORTANT!!!,” the president wrote on his social media platform Truth Social, referencing his friend, the late Republican Sen.Lindsey Graham, S.C., who died suddenly earlier this month.
Trump’s about-face on sanctions relief for Iran is notable and comes after the administration has already reimposed sanctions on Iranian oil exports, a key source of cash for the economically- crippled Islamic Republic. It also comes as the U.S. launches fresh strikes against the country in retaliation for the killing of U.S. troops. The Associated Press reported on Sunday that the U.S. had also hit the construction site of a planned nuclear power plant in southwestern Iran.
Trump told NewsNation on Saturday that he “couldn’t care less” about the memorandum of understanding, the framework agreement signed by both countries in June aimed at ending the war.
The threat of new sanctions – albeit via Russia, an Iranian ally — is part of what’s becoming an erratic negotiating strategy for Trump in the Middle East that some White House allies say is harming the U.S. negotiations to end the war.
Trump earlier this week quickly dropped a threat to impose a 20% fee on commercial cargo traveling through the Strait of Hormuz.
The Russia sanctions bill would allow the U.S. to impose tariffs on the five largest buyers of Iranian oil. Trump is now calling for Iran to be added to it.
Graham, along with Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., sponsored the bipartisan bill aimed at penalizing Russia for its continued invasion of Ukraine.
The MOU with Iran dangled sanctions relief during the period of negotiations aimed at ending the war by saying the U.S. “undertakes to terminate all types of sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran, including the United Nations Security Council resolutions, I.A.E.A. Board of Governors resolutions, and all unilateral U.S. sanctions, primary and secondary, in an agreed-upon schedule as part of the final deal.”
But as hostilities escalate and the ceasefire falls apart, Trump appears to have changed his mind about the sanctions relief offered in the MOU.
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