Senators Seek New Sanctions Against Iran Over Missile Tests

Sen. Graham Falsely Claims Test Violated UN Resolution

Most of the world fairly quickly came to the realization that Iran’s single medium-range ballistic missile test did not violate a UN Security Council resolution on nuclear missiles, because the missile was not designed to fit a nuclear warhead. Even the Trump Administration seems to have come backed away from the claim, even if they used it as a pretext to impose new sanctions against Iran.

Now the Senate wants in. Never particularly worried about having a justification and always eager to take new hostile action against Iran as a matter of routine, Congressional hawks say they intend to impose a new round of sanctions on top of the Trump sanctions against Iran, again supposedly linked to the single missile test.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R – SC) falsely claimed that Iran had violated the UN resolution with the test, but the bulk of his comments made it clear what Iran actually did wasn’t a big part of the effort, saying he just thinks its time for Congress “to take Iran on directly.”

Sen. Chris Murphy (D – CT) insisted the sanctions were about “the emerging proxy war between Iran and Saudi,” insisting the US needed to get more heavily involved in that conflict, with the sanctions a way to signal a broader role in it.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.