Legislators in the U.S. of Representatives and Senate have begun to evaluate yesterday’s report from the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog, which showed that Iran is on track to lock in the technology allowing it to rush across the nuclear finish line undetected. The current projected timeline would have Iran achieving the capability to conduct an undetectable breakout by mid-2014.

Reuters describes the early reactions with the blunt headline: “Iran uranium report renews push for sanctions in U.S. Congress”:

“This IAEA report makes clear that Iran continues to rapidly expand its nuclear weapons program and underscores the urgency of Congress passing new Iran sanctions legislation into law,” Eliot Engel, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a statement. Legislation that would tighten sanctions on Tehran has been making its way through the U.S. Congress this year.

Before adjourning for recess, the House passed its sanctions bill by a vote of 400-20. The legislation, introduced by Reps. Ed Royce and Eliot Engel, specifically targeted Iran’s oil trade.

Rep. Ted Deutch had days earlier contextualized the legislation at a panel hosted by The Israel Project. He noted that the Nuclear Iran Prevention Act would send a message to Iran, then on the eve of incoming Iranian president Hassan Rouhani’s inauguration, that the U.S. was committed to preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

Bloomberg described the legislation as “the most stringent package of sanctions against Iran.” It also quoted Royce expressing skepticism that Iran was preparing to alter its posture toward developing nuclear weapons:

“New president or not, I am convinced that Iran’s Supreme Leader intends to continue on this path,” Representative Ed Royce, a California Republican and chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said on the House floor, referring to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. “That’s unless the sanctions bite so bad the regime must relent or face upheaval. That’s why this legislation dramatically steps up the pressure on Tehran.”

Khamenei controls Iran’s posture toward nuclear negotiations and during the recent election preemptively banned concessions to the West. Rouhani himself is a revolutionary-era cleric who has been described by analysts as a “consummate regime insider.”

Rouhani has bragged that nuclear negotiations during the early 2000s provided the regime with time to expand and advance its nuclear program.

[Photo: The Israel Project]