[JURIST] US Republican senators announced on Sunday that they are planning to introduce a bill further sanctioning Iran for testing ballistic missiles and attempting to “destabilize” the Middle East. Tehran recently increased international tensions after testing [Reuters report] ballistic missiles with the inscription “Death to Israel”. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) [official profile] called Iran “a bad actor in the greatest sense of the word” and called for direct action. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif has stated, however,that Iran does not respond well to sanctions or threats. James Jones, a former national security adviser, said he believed sanctions against the country could be a useful deterrent to this behavior. Senator Christopher Murphy (D-CT) [official profile], a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee [official website], was less certain that sanctions were the appropriate measure at this time, stating that though there isn’t a question of whether sanctions are within Congress’s purview, “[t]here’s going to be a conversation about what the proportional response is.” This most recent development follows the Treasury Department’s [official website] recent decision to place sanctions on 25 individuals and companies [JURIST report] in connection with Iran’s missile program.

The situation surrounding Iran’s development and testing of nuclear technology has been a matter of national concern and has elicited multiple sanctions over the years. A bill renewing US sanctions against Iran for another 10 years became law [JURIST report] last December. In response to renewal of the Iran Sanctions Act, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has accused the US of breaching the nuclear agreement and has ordered the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation to plan the development of nuclear-powered ships. The US House had approved the extension of sanctions last November [JURIST report]. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported as recently as last September that Iran had successfully maintained a stockpile of “heavy water” below the threshold. In July 2015 the US entered into a nuclear agreement with Iran where the county agreed not to create a nuclear bomb in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. The agreement was reached [JURIST report] after 20 months of negotiations. Iran has repeatedly claimed [JURIST report] that it has a right to nuclear technology and that its aims are peaceful.