Senate must pass SHIP Act to counteract Iran’s terrorism
Washington Examiner
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One of President Joe Biden’s most inexcusable foreign policy failings is his refusal to get tough economically against the radical Islamist state of Iran. Congress, rightly, seems on the verge of forcing him to punish the mullahs. It should go ahead and do so.
The president has tried fecklessly to cajole Iran back into former President Barack Obama’s fanciful and dangerous nuclear deal, which always lacked adequate verification. It hardly pressures Iran even to pretend to limit its use of nuclear technology but nevertheless granted the mullahs access to tens of billions of dollars in increased worldwide trade. He agreed to release $6 billion to Iran, although he has, thankfully, been forced to refreeze this in light of Iran’s support for mass murder by Hamas.
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Still, on Nov. 14, he waived sanctions in a way that provides Iran with more than $10 billion in revenue from electricity generation. He repeatedly responds to Iranian-backed attacks on U.S. citizens, including service members in the Middle East, with weak, barely tit-for-tat airstrikes against Iranian proxies. Iran’s proxy murdered Americans in Israel on Oct 7. Where is the U.S. response? Biden has also let lapse an international embargo against Iran’s missile and drone programs.
According to Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL), “Since President Biden took office, Iran has profited nearly $80 billion from oil sales alone.”
Yet Iran is the major sponsor, to the tune of nearly a billion dollars annually, of all three of the Middle East’s most active terrorist groups, Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis, all of which are regularly firing missiles at our ally Israel (along with plenteous other deadly mischief). Even before Hamas’s Oct. 7 atrocities, Iranian-backed groups had launched 83 attacks on Americans during the Biden presidency, but our president fired back only four times. Since Oct. 7, Iranian-backed militias have attacked U.S. and coalition troops in Iraq and Syria at least 58 times, wounding at least 59 American military personnel.
Because Biden won’t stand up to Iran voluntarily, a large bipartisan coalition in Congress is trying to force him to do so. By a 342-69 vote margin, including a 133-69 vote in favor among Biden’s own Democrats, the House passed the Stop Harboring Iranian Petroleum Act. This SHIP Act would force the president to impose sanctions on all owners of vessels, ports, or refineries that carry, receive shipments of, or process petroleum products originating in Iran.
So far, 27 senators, including, alas, only three Democrats, have co-sponsored companion legislation in their chamber, and it seems likely to pick up legislative momentum. Biden ought to welcome the legislation, as it would be able to say the sanctions express the public’s overwhelming will. Still, there is no good reason for any senator to oppose the bill, and if just 18 of 51 Democrats join all 49 Senate Republicans in support of it, the bill would enjoy a veto-proof supermajority in both chambers.
Why are they waiting? War across the Middle East, mostly provoked by Iran, makes hobbling the ayatollah and his proxies the highest of priorities.
When the Senate returns after Thanksgiving, it should immediately pass the SHIP Act unanimously or at least by a big margin. The United States should do all in its power to turn off the financial spigot for Iran’s state-supported terrorism.