Menendez, Hagerty Lead Bipartisan Letter Welcoming Continued Restrictions on Iran's Ballistic Missile and Drone Program and Urging More Efforts

Letter

Dear Ambassador,

We write to applaud the decision to take concrete actions to uphold restrictions on Iran's ballistic missile and drone program this fall. In October 2023, international sanctions on Iran's import and export of missile and drone-related technology under UN Security Council Resolution 2231 will sunset. Allowing these restrictions to expire poses a threat to stability and security in the Middle East and beyond. It would enable the further proliferation of advanced weaponry, empower malign actors in the Middle East and Europe, and send the wrong signal to the Iranian regime when it has shown no willingness to alter its destabilizing policies across a number of areas.

The Iranian regime has continued, and in some cases intensified, threatening activities in regards to its nuclear program, support for regional proxies, and utter disregard for human rights. Iran continues to enrich uranium to levels well above those necessary--for peaceful civilian use of nuclear energy given the international market for uranium fuel--while refusing to cooperate fully and transparently with the International Atomic Energy Agency. Iran continues to proliferate missiles, rockets, and drones to proxy forces across the Middle East, including to Hizballah, Hamas, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad for use against Israel. And Iran continues to brutally crackdown on the rights of its own citizens, most recently unleashing "morality police" enforcers against Iranian women less than one year after the death of Mahsa Amini.

Further, the expiration of these sanctions would have dire effects for Ukrainians resisting Russia's illegal and unprovoked invasion of their country. Iran has already provided hundreds of lethal drones to the Russian Federation--including the Shahed-131, Shahed-136, and Mohajer-6--which have been used to target Ukrainian civilians and power stations, and overwhelm Ukrainian air defenses.[1] According to the Defense Intelligence Agency, Iran is currently helping Russia build a drone-manufacturing facility 600 miles east of Moscow, expected to be completed early next year.[2]

Looking ahead, the expiration of UN sanctions would allow Iran to provide ballistic missiles with a range of 300 kilometers (185 miles) or more to Russia for use in its war of aggression. Iran's current arsenal includes short-range ballistic missiles with a range of 300 to 750 km (185 to 465 miles) and medium-range ballistic missiles with a range of 2,000 km (1,200 miles).[3] With these missiles, Putin could hit targets across the entirety of Ukraine, as well as credibly threaten most of mainland Europe.

Without the force of a binding UN Security Council resolution, there is no multilateral framework that mandates international sanctions on Iran's missile and drone program. For these reasons and more, we strongly support the decision to take steps that would maintain sanctions on Iran's missile and drone program before UN sanctions sunset in mid-October, and we encourage you to urge other European allies and other like-minded partners to do the same.

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