CNN reported Thursday a bipartisan bill to apply new sanctions against Iran will be introduced in the Senate today, which would give the Obama administration up to a year to negotiate before the sanctions would kick in.
According to the report, the White House could find itself in a tough spot since the interim agreement with Iran entailed no new sanctions being imposed in the first six months, but this bill would call for them if Iran in any way cheated on the deal, planned a terror attack against the United States, or launched a long-range ballistic missile.
Full transcript:
WOLF BLITZER: Jim Sciutto is over at the Pentagon right now. You're learning new information on an anti-Iran sanctions bill that is about to be introduced? What's going on?
JIM SCIUTTO: That's right, Wolf. I'm told by a senior senate aide involved in drafting this bill that Senators Mark Kirk, a Republican, Senator Bob Menendez, a Democrat, very involved on the Iran issue, will introduce a bill today that would apply new sanctions to Iran and here's how it's described to me. I'm quoting from this senior senate aide. It would give the president up to a year potentially to negotiate with Iran before sanctions must kick in, although sanctions would come back sooner if Iran cheats on the deal, plans a terror attack against the U.S., or launches a long-range ballistic missile. A change in here you can notice from previous bills you've heard talked about initially. There had been a six-month delay discussed to allow this six-month interim agreement with Iran to proceed before any sanctions would come in. What's significant, and you and I have talked about this a number of times, Iran has made it very clear they don't want any new sanctions imposed. In fact, the Iranian foreign minister said a week ago if that happened, any new sanctions would kill an interim deal. The administration has been pushing hard on this, pushing back to keep this from happening. I'm told by the senior senate aide that they have a quarter of the Senate on board, equal Democrats and Republicans. At least in this aide's view, that would be a difficult support for Senator Harry Reid, the Democratic leader, to not allow this to come to a vote next month.
BLITZER: I assume it'll pass, especially since they give the Iranians a year to comply with this deal, this interim deal, if it works out, then these new sanctions would not go into effect in the course of the year. If it doesn't work out, presumably the sanctions would go into effect. I assume it would pass the Senate if it's allowed to come up for a vote, pass the House of Representatives. Here's the question, I don't know if we have reaction from the White House. If the House passes it, the Senate passes it, would the president veto it or sign it into law?
SCIUTTO: We don't have reaction from the White House yet, but one way they're hamstrung, Wolf, is if you read the text of the interim deal with Iran -- I can't quote it now because I don't have it in front of me -- I know it has language in there that says, no new sanctions will be applied during the six months of the interim deal. I suppose you have some legal wiggle room to say they wouldn't be applied, they're held out for 12 months or earlier, if Iran violates the agreement, but at least the indications we've gotten consistently from the administration, as well as from the Iranians, is that they would treat something like this as new sanctions. It would be a real challenge for the administration to overcome this.