Austin News

U.S. Senators Ted Cruz and Tim Scott, along with several of their Senate Republican colleagues, have demanded transparency from the Biden administration regarding the recent release of additional Iran sanction waivers. The senators, members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, expressed their concerns in a letter addressed to Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen and Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

In the letter, the senators criticized the administration's decision to renew a sanctions waiver that allows the Iranian regime to access funds held overseas more easily. They highlighted the potential misuse of these funds to support terrorism and emphasized that the waiver goes against congressional intent, which aimed to restrict Iran's access to such funds.

"It is unfathomable that this is the context in which the administration determined that it was within the national security interest of the United States to waive sanctions on restricted Iranian funds, making them more accessible to the regime," the senators wrote in the letter. They further stated, "If we want to actually restore deterrence in the region, those funds should be placed further out of Iran’s reach, not closer."

Joining Sens. Cruz and Scott in sending the letter were Senators Chuck Grassley, John Cornyn, Marco Rubio, Tom Cotton, Todd Young, Rick Scott, Ted Budd, Mike Crapo, Katie Britt, Kevin Cramer, and Pete Ricketts.

This recent demand for transparency follows a previous letter sent in November of 2023, where Sen. Cruz and his colleagues criticized the administration for extending a similar sanctions waiver without a cohesive Iran strategy. The letter also called for a classified assessment of the administration's plan to deter Iranian aggression and prevent conflict escalation in the Middle East.