Senate votes to strengthen sanctions on both Russian Federation and Iran

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The amendment on Russian Federation, which passed in a 97-2 vote on Wednesday, was attached to a bill to strengthen sanctions on Iran.

The bill penalizes Moscow for interfering in the 2016 election by imposing sanctions on key sectors of Russia's economy, including mining, metals, shipping and railways.

It also would require President Donald Trump to seek congressional permission to relax the current regime of sanctions against Russian Federation, possibly limiting his leeway to improve relations between Washington and Moscow.

The Senate-passed sanctions bill also converts existing penalties against Moscow into law, potentially making them more hard to remove, and prevents the Trump administration from returning two Russian diplomatic compounds seized in December by the Obama administration as punishment for alleged electoral disruption.

The sanctions were meant to be a punishment for Russia's meddling in Ukraine as well as pushback to the Moscow government's attempts to interfere in the US election past year, lawmakers said.

The U.S. Senate overwhelmingly passed a bill Wednesday to keep and expand sanctions against Russian Federation and to block the president from lifting them without congressional approval.

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The underlying bill imposed new sanctions on Iran for its ballistic missile program and support for global terrorism.

The review mechanism was styled after 2015 legislation pushed by Republicans and approved overwhelmingly in the Senate that gave Congress a vote on whether President Barack Obama could lift sanctions against Iran.

The bill was now heading toward the House for passage before reaching U.S. President Donald Trump's desk.

Earlier this week, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told lawmakers that U.S. allies around the world had asked Washington to improve relations with Russian Federation, and warned that further measures against Moscow could hinder ongoing progress in the fight against terrorism in Syria. It was noted, "the amendment of the Russian Federation will be attached to the pending bill on sanctions against Iran".

'This is a very, very strong piece of legislation, ' Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Bob Corker said on the Senate floor. Rand Paul (R -KY) and Bernie Sanders (I - VT).

Other sanctions have been introduced for the country's alleged interference in the US presidential election. "So my caution is I wouldn't want to have ourselves handcuffed to Minsk if it turns out the parties decide to settle this through different agreement".

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