INARA: The Obama-era law that could kill Trump's Iran
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- INARA, the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act passed during JCPOA negotiations, requires the president to seek immediate congressional authorization for any nuclear deal with Iran and prohibits waiving sanctions for 30 days during review.
- VP JD Vance said Thursday the administration was "quite confident" it could temporarily lift certain sanctions without going to Congress, even as Trump publicly endorsed sending the deal to Capitol Hill.
- Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and James Lankford (R-Okla.) broke with the administration to demand a congressional vote, with Graham calling Vance "the architect of the deal" and insisting he present it to the Hill.
- AIPAC and JINSA have signaled Congress is the best venue to sink the accord, with AIPAC listing the bypass of Congress as one of its "serious concerns" and Curt Mills of The American Conservative saying GOP hawks may aim to "kill [the deal] in the crib."
- Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) called on Congress to "review and reject this deal immediately," while Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) urged Democrats to support it and Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) warned against replicating GOP opposition to the Obama-era JCPOA.
- In Switzerland on Monday, Vance announced Iran would allow IAEA inspectors back in, though Kelsey Davenport of the Arms Control Association warned that without verifiable inspections, Congress could use INARA's verifiability clause to re-impose sanctions.
- Ryan Costello of the National Iranian American Council argued the deeper risk is that if the deal is "maligned so thoroughly," sanctions relief gets re-securitized and a future president could undo it entirely — repeating the JCPOA's fate.
Why it matters: Multiple senators from both parties are publicly demanding a vote on a deal many privately hope never reaches the floor, a dynamic that hands hawkish lobbying groups like AIPAC and JINSA a legislative venue to dismantle the accord. If the deal is politicized the way the JCPOA was, sanctions relief gets re-securitized and a future president can unwind it — returning the U.S. and Iran to the brink of war without a single INARA disapproval vote.
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