The strikes will feature prominently in discussions between EU leaders when they meet for a summit in Brussels later this week.
At their last meeting, they discussed whether to hit Iran with new economic sanctions in response to intelligence warnings that Tehran was preparing to ship ballistic missiles to Russia.
Republicans in Washington demanded that Mr Biden restrict Iranian imports and sanction Chinese companies which buy oil from Tehran.
Joni Ernst, a senator from Iowa, has proposed one of several bills in Congress to increase restrictions on Iranian trade.
“President Biden must enforce sanctions on Iran now,” she said on Monday.
“My bipartisan bill would help stop the flow of Iranian oil and hold Biden accountable.”
Hit Iran’s oil industry
Another bill, introduced in the House of Representatives by Republican Mike Lawler, would hit Iran’s oil industry, which was worth $35 billion (£28 billion) to the country in the last 12 months.
“We must cut off the illicit oil trade bankrolling Iran,” he said.
Iran’s revenue from electricity trading with Iraq had already led to criticism of Mr Biden from Republicans after the war in Gaza began on Oct 7.
Earlier this month, 13 senators led by former presidential candidate Tim Scott of South Carolina, stepped up their attack on the policy in an open letter to Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, and Janet Yellen, the treasury secretary.
“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,” they wrote.
They accused Mr Biden of “expanding” Iran’s access to energy revenue and sharing “limited information” on his plan for the Middle East with Congress.
Source link
