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The Next Iran Legislative Challenge
(The Hill) Robert Satloff - Soon, the Iran debate will move on to its next phase, when legislators table numerous proposals to plug holes in the agreement and strengthen broader deterrence against Iran. This doesn't refer to proposals for increased military assistance to Israel and Gulf states threatened by Iranian adventurism; they will pass with huge margins. Rather, these include calling on the president to brief Congressional leaders on details of understandings U.S. officials claim to have with European partners on how to penalize Iran for various types of violations of the deal, defining new sanctions to deter Iran from sending sanctions-relief funds to terrorist groups, transferring to Israel the mountain-busting Massive Ordnance Penetrator, and establishing as official policy a U.S. commitment to use "all means necessary" to prevent Iran's accumulation, now or in the future, of the highly enriched uranium whose sole purpose is for a nuclear weapon. These fixes would repair some of the most serious flaws in the Iran deal. They can be implemented without opening the deal to renegotiation. The writer is executive director of The Washington Institute for Near East Policy.