Senate Panel, House Advance Iran Sanctions Bills

The full House and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee each approved several Iran sanctions bills this week, reflecting increasing congressional concern about Tehran's behavior.

The House-passed bills include the Iran Sanctions Accountability Act, which would require the president to issue regulations to ensure that humanitarian exemptions to Iran sanctions don't facilitate international terrorism or the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

Other House-passed bills include the Iran-China Energy Sanctions Act, which would sanction Chinese financial institutions that buy Iranian petroleum products, and the No U.S. Financing for Iran Act, which would prohibit the Treasury Department from issuing licenses that allow U.S. financial institutions to enable non-humanitarian trade with Iran.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved the House-passed Stop Harboring Iranian Petroleum (Ship) Act, which would impose new sanctions on foreign ports and refineries that process or accept Iranian petroleum (see 2311060014).

Other committee-backed bills include the End Iranian Terror (End It) Act, which would require the creation of a strategy to counter China's evasion of U.S. sanctions on Iran, and the Mahsa Amini Human Rights and Security Accountability Act, which would sanction Iranian leaders for human rights abuses and support for terrorism.