The bill, unveiled by Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker, was co-sponsored by Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey. | AP Photo Iran sanctions bill unveiled by bipartisan Senate group

Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) on Thursday unveiled a bipartisan bill to slap Iran with new sanctions because of the country’s ballistic missile development, support for U.S.-designated terrorist groups and human rights violations.

Democratic co-sponsors, including Robert Menendez of New Jersey and Foreign Relations ranking member Ben Cardin of Maryland, emphasized that the measure was designed explicitly so as not to undermine the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.


The bill is supported by more than a dozen senators, according to a news release, including Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Bob Casey (D-Pa.) and Chris Coons (D-Del.) — giving it a strong chance of being taken up in the Senate.

“This legislation demonstrates the strong bipartisan support in Congress for a comprehensive approach to holding Iran accountable by targeting all aspects of the regime’s destabilizing actions,” Corker said in a statement. “These steps will allow us to regain the initiative on Iran and push back forcefully against this threat to our security and that of our allies.”

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The measure would impose mandatory sanctions on those involved in Iran’s ballistic missile program. It would apply terrorism sanctions to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. And it is designed to strengthen other sanctions, including requiring “the president to block the property of any person or entity involved in specific activities related to the supply, sale, or transfer of prohibited arms and related material to or from Iran.”

An aide to Cardin said the senator worked behind the scenes to strip from the bill anything that would harm the Iran nuclear deal — provisions the aide said would have been unpalatable to Democrats. Cardin stripped out language that would have prohibited the president from using the national security waiver to enter into international agreements with Iran, among other revisions, according to the aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

“We felt it would be received in our caucus as antagonistic toward the Obama administration, even after the fact, and he agreed to keep it out,” the aide said.