The Obama administration is considering how to respond to a ballistic missile launch by the Iranian regime that violated U.N. Security Council resolutions, senior U.S. officials said on Thursday, as senators pressed for a strong reaction.
“We are now actively considering the appropriate consequences to that launch in October,” Stephen Mull, the U.S. State Department’s lead coordinator for implementing an international nuclear deal with Iran’s regime, told a Senate committee hearing, Reuters reported.
Almost every Republican U.S. lawmaker, as well as several of President Barack Obama’s fellow Democrats, opposed the nuclear agreement announced in July, under which Iran’s regime has said it would curtail its nuclear program in exchange for relief from economic sanctions.
Concerns in the United States about the agreement have intensified since the Iranian regime’s rocket test on October 10.
Many lawmakers criticize the Obama administration for what they see as an inadequate response to Tehran.
“One area that we all agree on is the need to be tough on any destabilizing or illegal action by Iran. With that view, I think the agreement is off to a really terrible start,” said Republican Senator Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
In a report first reported by Reuters, a team of sanctions monitors found on Tuesday that Iran’s regime violated a U.N. Security Council resolution by test-firing a missile capable of delivering a nuclear warhead.
“We have a very permissive environment,” said Democratic Senator Robert Menendez, who opposes the nuclear deal, as he closely questioned Mull and other administration officials about the response to the missile test.
Another Democrat, Senator Chris Coons, who backed the Iran deal but with reservations, said that starting next month members of Congress would push for renewal of a U.S. sanctions bill that is in force until the end of 2016.
Mull said the administration is “looked forward” to working with Congress on the issue.