Lawmakers sent a bipartisan and bicameral letter to President Joe Biden on Wednesday urging him to resolve a delay in the seizure of Iranian oil and gas shipments sitting in a tanker outside of Texas.
Earlier this year, the United States government seized the tanker Suez Rajan after it was transferring sanctioned Iranian oil off Singapore. The ship and its cargo were supposed to be offloaded in Houston, with the oil profits sent to victims of terrorism. However, U.S. companies are reluctant to touch or unload the cargo.
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The Suez Rajan has been anchored off the coast of Texas since May. While the U.S. Coast Guard cleared the tanker for unloading, the companies that manage transfers are worried about retribution from Iran after the country has previously harassed, boarded, and seized foreign tankers in the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf of Oman.
“The ability for a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) to prevent the transfer of seized assets within U.S. territorial waters is an unprecedented intimidation effort that threatens to undermine our Nation’s security,” the lawmakers write in their letter.
“We request that you work expeditiously to resolve the delay in the transfer of seized oil from the Suez Rajan and continue to enforce the law against Foreign Terrorist Organizations, such as the IRGC. The enforcement of petroleum sanctions will become irrelevant if American citizens and companies involved live in fear of Iranian retaliation,” they added.
The letter is signed by Sens. Joni Ernst (R-IA), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and Bill Hagerty (R-TN), as well as Reps. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Jim Banks (R-IN), Don Davis (D-NC), and Max Miller (R-OH). The lawmakers requested a briefing on the progress of transferring the seized oil from the Suez Rajan to U.S. custody and a written response with a detailed timeline of the incident and how the U.S. is responding to threats from Iran.
“President Biden must answer for Iran’s increased aggression, because Americans deserve to know their lives and livelihoods will be protected against terrorists’ intimidation,” Ernst said in a statement to the Washington Examiner.
Ernst and Blumenthal wrote a letter to Biden this spring expressing concern that the Department of Homeland Security’s Homeland Security Investigations office has been constrained in its ability to seize Iranian oil shipments. Since its seizure program began in 2019, the office has taken nearly $228 million in Iranian crude and field oil linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S., according to the letter. The senators claim the office has not been provided the funding available under the Treasury Forfeiture Fund to seize Iranian oil.
Lawmakers’ most recent letter comes as the Biden administration’s deal to bring imprisoned Americans home from Iran in exchange for several imprisoned Iranians and access to $6 billion in frozen assets for humanitarian purposes is drawing criticism from Republicans.
“The Biden administration’s failure to enforce sanctions on Iran has made the world a less safe place,” Ernst said. “I have called on President Biden to stand up to Iran and enforce our sanctions for months. Instead, he has doubled down on his posture of appeasement by incentivizing their hostage ‘diplomacy,’ allowing Iran to increase funding for their terrorist activities, and emboldening the IRGC to intimidate American companies in our own waters.”
Top U.S. diplomats have attempted to restart negotiations with Tehran over a nuclear deal that Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from in 2018; the former president instead opted to impose “the highest level of economic sanctions” on the country. Biden has previously pledged to revive the deal that imposed limits on Iran’s nuclear programs but has failed to reach a deal.
“Iran’s ramped-up threats and attacks against Western ships are the direct result of the Biden Administration pandering to Tehran by prioritizing a flawed nuclear agreement instead of protecting America’s national security,” Stefanik said in a statement provided to the Washington Examiner.
“Recent reports allege that Iran is threatening to retaliate against U.S. civilians and corporations if they engage in the unloading of seized Iranian oil. This unacceptable behavior shows the Biden Administration’s continued weakness on the world stage is only emboldening Iran,” she added.
The U.S. military announced it would send additional warships and thousands of Marines to the Middle East in July in response to recent Iranian attempts to seize commercial vessels.
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In early July, an Iranian vessel approached the Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker TRF Moss in international waters in the Gulf of Oman but ultimately left when the U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer USS McFaul arrived at the scene. A couple of hours later, another Iranian vessel began harassing the Bahamian-flagged oil tanker Richmond Voyager and opened fire at it in international waters near Muscat, Oman.
Over the past two years, Iran has attacked, seized, or attempted seizure of nearly 20 internationally flagged merchant vessels in the region.
