WASHINGTON (JTA) — Lawmakers in Congress introduced bills that would tighten Iran sanctions and back Israel should it strike that country’s suspected nuclear program.
A bill introduced this week in the U.S. House of Representatives by Rep. Ed Royce (R-Calif.), the chairman of its Foreign Affairs Committee, and Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), its ranking member, would designate Iran’s Revolutionary Guard as a foreign terrorist organization, subjecting it to broad automatic sanctions. It would also authorize the president to impose sanctions at will on those dealing with Iran.
In the Senate, a non-binding resolution introduced by Sens. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), urges the U.S. government to provide diplomatic, military and economic support to Israel "if the Government of Israel is compelled to take military action in self-defense."
Both bills will be part of the lobbying package some 13,000 delegates to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s annual policy conference will take to Capitol Hill next Tuesday.
