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Americans must stop Senate war bid on Iran: Analyst

342560_Iran-USA political analyst has urged the American people to prevent the Congress from mandating the US to participate in a potential Israeli-initiated war with Iran through a piece of draft legislation, Press TV reports.

In a Saturday article on Press TV’s website, Sheldon Richman pointed to the Senate’s new sanctions bill against Iran and noted, “The American people should know that pending right now in Congress is a bipartisan bill that would virtually commit the United States to go to war against Iran if Israel attacks the Islamic Republic.”

“Americans should refuse to let Congress give Israel the power to drag the United States into war,” the article said.

On December 19, a group of Democrat and Republican Senators introduced new legislation to impose further sanctions against Iran if the nuclear deal reached last month in Geneva fails.

Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Sen. Robert Menendez and Sen. Mark Kirk drafted the bill, which proposes boycotting Iranian oil exports within a year and the blacklisting of Iran’s mining, engineering and construction industries.

The Senate bill also calls for “diplomatic, military and economic support” to Israel in case Tel Aviv decides to launch an attack against Iran’s nuclear energy program.

“Clearly, the bill is designed to destroy the talks with Iran, which is bending over backward to demonstrate that its [nuclear energy] program has no military aims,” Richman pointed out.

The White House announced that President Barack Obama would veto the new Iran sanctions bill if it is approved in the Senate.

The bill comes despite the historic interim agreement reached between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany in Geneva on November 24 in an effort to set the stage for the full resolution of the decade-old dispute over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear energy program.

In exchange for Tehran agreeing to limit certain aspects of its nuclear activities for six months, the six countries have agreed to provide Iran with some sanctions relief.

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