President Donald Trump's administration may work with House Republicans to ease tough sanctions on Russian Federation that passed with an overwhelming 98-2 bipartisan majority in the Senate, Politico reported.
The sanctions measure has been attached to a bill imposing penalties on Iran that the Senate is now debating and which also has strong bipartisan support. News reports the sanctions target Russian individuals who give weapons to the Assad regime, violate human rights, or are involved in the defense and intelligence industries.
It also allows Congress to review any administration attempts to ease, suspend or end sanctions. The bill, which includes both Russian and Iranian sanctions, now heads to the House, which still needs to pass it before it goes to President Donald Trump's desk.
If the Trump administration decides to oppose the new sanctions, they could be in a bind. The two "no" senators were Republicans Rand Paul of Kentucky and Mike Lee of Utah.
The measure, which passed on a vote of 98 to two, seeks to make Tehran pay a price for its "continued support of terrorism". "We have some channels where we're starting to talk, but what I wouldn't want to do is close the channels off".
While Donald Trump seems determined to make America best friends with Russian Federation - handing over top secret intelligence and trying to lift sanctions against the country - a almost united Senate is standing in his way.
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The government spokesman said earlier that Macron is expected to make only small, "technical" changes and rename the government. After the first round of elections a week ago, some anticipated that more than 400 seats would be won by the two parties.
The Senate voted almost unanimously Wednesday to allow Congress to strip the president of the power to unilaterally lift existing sanctions against Russian Federation, a matter that had many of President Donald Trump's allies siding with his harshest critics.
President Trump and Moscow have always denied any collusion.
'For too long, the message to Vladimir Putin has been that Russia can invade its neighbors, threaten United States allies, intensify its cyberattacks, and interfere with foreign elections with very little repercussion, ' said Senator John McCain, a strident critic of the Russian leader.
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson attends a joint press conference in Moscow, Russia, on April 12, 2017.
Earlier this month, Yahoo News reported that the Trump administration secretly tried to eliminate Russia's economic sanctions.
"We see destabilizing act after destabilizing act [by Iran], from missile launches to arms transfers to terrorist training to illicit financial activities to targeting Navy ships and detaining American citizens", said the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Republican Bob Corker of Tennessee.
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