US Senate advances bill to sanction Russia and Iran, with potential tariffs on major buyers

Washington: The US Senate, in a show of bipartisanship, has voted overwhelmingly to fast-track a bill that would allow US President Donald Trump to impose sanctions on major buyers of oil from Russia and Iran, which would affect countries such as India and China.The Senate voted 86-12 on Tuesday to invoke the cloture motion to advance the Lindsey O Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026, hours after they gathered to bid a final farewell to the Senator from South Carolina, who passed away on July 11.Cloture is a formal procedure of the Senate to set a time limit for the debate and related actions on an issue before it is put to a final vote.Senators voted on the cloture motion after a meeting with visiting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who was here for the funeral service of the late Lindsey Graham.Burj Khalifa Becomes First UAE Attraction To Accept UPI For Online Ticket Bookings Zelenskyy was in the Senate gallery, waving and smiling at the Senators as they lined up to cast their votes.Graham, a Republican, and Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal had worked on the Russia sanctions bill for more than a year. Iran was added to the bill at the instance of Trump.“The Lindsey Graham sanctions bill will advance the cause of freedom, and it will combat Vladimir Putin’s war machine,” Senator Roger Wicker, Republican from Mississippi and the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said before the vote.Blumenthal said the bill also empowers the president to impose tariffs up to 100 per cent on the five largest purchasers of Russian oil and gas.“It is carefully crafted to make sure we are not hitting our allies and that we are hitting China and India. Let's be really blunt. China and India are the main culprits here. They purchase the vast majority of oil and gas, they are fuelling Russia's war machine and they are doing us no favours anywhere else in the world,” Blumenthal said.Indian Envoy In Shanghai Meets Shaoxing CPC Secretary, Discusses India Visit And Bilateral Ties The bill, which has 62 co-sponsors, is widely expected to pass in the 100-member Senate. However, the bill may run into some resistance in the House, where Democrats are not keen to expand Trump’s tariff authority.“It is extremely dangerous to give Trump massive new tariff powers, particularly after we’ve seen the disastrous impacts of his corrupt, chaotic, and inflationary tariff spree,” House Ways and Means ranking member Richard Neal and Senate Finance ranking member Ron Wyden said in a statement.The bipartisan group of Senators said they were proud to announce an agreement on legislation to stop purchasers of Russian oil and gas from fuelling Putin's war machine and to continue restricting the Iranian regime's ability to support terrorism and build its nuclear programme.The Lindsey O Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026 would impose primary and secondary sanctions against Russia and actors supporting its war in Ukraine.UNSC Reform Cannot Remain Hostage To Interests Of A Select Few Nations: India The sanctions target Russian officials, oligarchs, their family members, foreign persons and Russian banks and financial institutions, as well as the Russian Shadow Fleet.The legislation allows the president to impose targeted tariffs on imported goods from countries that buy the vast majority of Russian oil or gas and enable Russian sanctions evasion.Section 113 of the bill specifically targets the five countries that purchase the largest volumes of Russian fuel or facilitate sanctions evasion through shadow fleets, threatening them with additional 100 per cent tariffs.Apart from China and India, the other top purchasers of Russian oil are Slovakia, Hungary and Azerbaijan.The bill calls for the US Trade Representative to reassess the top five purchasers every 180 days, to adjust tariff rates based on changes in purchasing behaviour.UNSC: India Condemns Attacks On Ships In Strait Of Hormuz, Calls For De-Escalation In West Asia Regarding Iran, the legislation extends the Iran Sanctions Act for an additional five years, keeping critical secondary restrictions in place until 2031.Furthermore, a legislative provision limits the new tariff authority to a five-year sunset period. This ensures the powers do not become a permanent fixture of US trade policy without further renewal. (Except for the headline, this article has not been edited by FPJ's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)

The US Senate on Tuesday overwhelmingly advanced a bipartisan sanctions bill that could significantly raise the economic stakes for countries buying Russian energy, including India and China, Times of India reported, while handing President Donald Trump sweeping powers to impose new tariffs on Moscow and its biggest customers.The legislation cleared its first procedural hurdle with an 86-12 vote and is expected to pass the Senate later this week. However, it is unlikely to become law before September as the House of Representatives has already begun its August recess.Also Read: Zelenskyy hails US Senate vote on Russia sanctions as first step to peaceChampioned by the late Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, the bill would authorise the president to impose a 500% tariff on Russian goods entering the US. It would also allow an additional 100% tariff on the world's five largest buyers of Russian crude oil and natural gas, as well as the top five countries found to be helping Moscow evade energy sanctions. India and China are among Russia's biggest energy customers.The legislation also extends the Iran Sanctions Act of 1996 through 2031, preserving US authority to impose secondary sanctions on non-US companies doing business with Iran. It further broadens measures targeting Russian oil and gas exports while giving the president the authority to waive sanctions if doing so is deemed to be in the US national interest.President Donald Trump has signalled support for the bill. Earlier on Tuesday, he met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House before the Ukrainian leader travelled to Capitol Hill to rally bipartisan support for maintaining economic pressure on Moscow.Also Read: US senators announce deal on new Russia, Iran Sanctions Bill"Sanctions pressure on Russia is very important," Zelenskyy said. "It's not only about your money. It's also a big signal to Europe, a big signal to Ukraine."Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said the legislation would send a strong message to Russian President Vladimir Putin, although some Democrats cautioned that it would also considerably expand Trump's authority to impose tariffs.If enacted, the legislation would mark one of Washington's most aggressive efforts yet to squeeze Russia's energy revenues. It could also have significant implications for India, which has sharply increased imports of discounted Russian crude since the start of the Ukraine war.

A bipartisan group of senators announced a deal Tuesday on long-awaited legislation to allow President Donald Trump to impose more restrictions on major buyers of Russian energy, as well as Iran.Trump has signaled support for the measure, which had been championed by the late Senator Lindsey Graham, and a procedural vote on it is set for late Tuesday. The bill extends penalties on Iran and singles out Russian gas and oil exports, empowering the president to target the top five buyers of Russian crude and natural gas with tariffs, as well as the top five countries aiding Russia’s energy sanctions evasion, according to text released Tuesday.While long sought by Graham and other ardent supporters of Ukraine, the legislation could jeopardize the already volatile US trade relationships with China and India, which are top buyers of Russian energy.Also Read: Trump says tariffs won’t hurt US economy, claims levies will bring ‘hundreds of billions of dollars’ in investmentsTrump met Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House Tuesday morning but didn’t make a public statement. The Ukrainian president didn’t mention the sanctions bill in his brief social media post on the session. Zelenskyy is set to meet legislators at the Capitol later in the day.Some Democratic lawmakers oppose the bill, warning it could be used by Trump as a legal justification for broad new tariffs.“There is no question that the US government must take stronger action against purchasers of Russian energy who are fueling the unjustifiable war against Ukraine,” Senator Ron Wyden and Congressman Richard Neal said in a statement on July 14. “But the latest draft of the Sanctioning Russia Act is a prescription for bedlam and higher tariffs.”Still, the bill has a strong chance of passing the Senate this week. The House has left for its August recess so it would not become law until September at the earliest.Also Read: US trade deficit narrows, exports hit five-month low ahead of key GDP printWhether the administration would actually use the new powers to boost pressure on Iran or Russia remains unclear. The White House negotiated broad waivers in the bill that give the president wide discretion not to impose penalties.“At a time when global energy markets remain under significant strain, further restricting supply risks imposing disproportionate costs on countries that are already bearing the economic consequences of today’s energy crisis,” said Brett Erickson, managing principal at Obsidian Risk Advisors. “If the objective is to intensify economic pressure on Iran, folding additional Iran provisions into a Russia sanctions bill is unlikely to move the needle in any meaningful way,” he noted.The bill extends the Iran Sanctions Act of 1996 through 2031, preventing a potential lapse in authority. That law imposes secondary economic sanctions on non-U.S. companies doing business with Iran and was meant to expire this year. The bill also allows the president to impose a blanket tariff of 500% on Russian goods imported to the US and an additional 100% tariff on the top five energy importers and countries that import Russian crude oil or natural gas, or that facilitate sanctions evasion.A last-minute change to the bill this week limits the new tariff authority to five years.The White House has previously made efforts to impose sanctions on Russia, but granted a series of temporary waivers for oil sales after the closing of the Strait of Hormuz during the war with Iran triggered a global squeeze on oil markets. Those expired last month.Last year, Trump slapped a 25% tariff on Indian goods over New Delhi’s Russian energy purchases, but later lifted it to help seal a broader US-India trade deal. China, one of Russia’s largest oil customers, escaped similar penalties altogether as Trump has sought to limit trade tensions with Beijing.The US has piled sanctions on Russia since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. A complicated patchwork of waivers and other loopholes allows Russia to continue to sell a large portion of its energy resources into international markets, in part because restricting those flows would have an adverse impact on the global economy.