Washington, D.C. – May 1, 2015 – U.S. Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA), Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and U.S. Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY), the Committee’s Ranking Member, urged President Obama to consider using sanctions to deter Russia’s planned delivery of S-300 missile systems to Iran. In a letter to the President, Royce and Engel point out that existing U.S. law provides the President the authority to apply sanctions in response to a transfer of these destabilizing weapons systems.
In the letter, Chairman Royce and Ranking Member Engel wrote: “We are writing to express our deep concern with Russia’s planned delivery of S-300 surface-to-air missile systems to Iran. If completed, the transfer of this sophisticated weapons system would significantly bolster Iran’s military capabilities and introduce new obstacles to our ability to eliminate the threat of an Iranian nuclear weapon. We believe existing U.S. sanctions should be used to deter Russia from transferring this or other dangerous weapons systems to Iran.”.