Republican senator Mitt Romney tells Iran International that the United States is committed to continue pressuring Iran to stop its malign activities across the Middle East.

Romney added that "there is a commitment on the part of our nation to continue to pressure Iran to move away from the insanity of developing nuclear weapons and pursuing a terror agenda in the Middle East and throughout the world”.

He made the remarks in reference to two motions that were passed in the Senate on Wednesday. First, was proposed by Senator Ted Cruz that called for maintaining terrorism-related sanctions on Iran’s Central Bank to limit Tehran’s cooperation for China, while the other – led by Senator James Lankford instructed Senate conferees to make sure that a House bill would include language that the Biden administration caqnnot remove the terror designation of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard (IRGC).

Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, who voted against the motion about the IRGC, told Iran International’s correspondent Arash Alaei that “the problem with dictating all of the things that could be negotiated, in advance, prevents or makes it less likely to have any diplomatic agreement”.

“I voted against precluding certain items that might be negotiated because I think if you preclude those in advance... there would be no negotiations with Iran or never any agreement”, Paul said.

He added that “it is a mistake to legislate away things that could be negotiated”.