Today, the House Armed Services Committee released its chairman’s mark for the FY13 National Defense Authorization Act. In addition to the tradition defense provisions the bill includes language on Iran and its nuclear program.  Included in section 1221 is provision that “it is the policy of the United States to take all necessary measures, including military action if necessary, to prevent Iran from threatening the United States, its allies, or Iran’s neighbors with a nuclear weapon.”

The act did not include the “redline” language found in Senate Resolution 380 where the Senate rejected “any United States policy that would rely on efforts to contain a nuclear weapons-capable Iran.”  However, the FY13 NDAA does include language that states Iran may soon have a nuclear weapons capability and such a capability would threaten US interests, encourage proliferation, and embolden Iran among other consequences.  But there is no language in this bill that attempts to restrict the President’s freedom of movement when dealing with Iran or denounces containment.

However, in section 1222 there is a new requirement that the Secretary of Defense prepare a plan to strengthen the Fifth Fleet and to “conduct military deployments, exercises, or other visible, concrete military readiness activities to underscore the policy of the United States.”  This plan would be submitted to Congress no later than 120 days after the enactment of the NDAA.

The full Committee will get a chance to mark up the bill on May 9^th and the Senate version is due for final markup on May 22^nd and 23^rd. Whether or not these sections will survive the floor action and negotiations between the House and the Senate waits to be seen, but historically statements of policy in NDAA’s have been watered down in the final version.

At the same the P5 + 1 intends to hold a second round of discussions with Iran on May 23 in Baghdad to further discuss the Iranian nuclear program. It is yet to be seen if this will achieve real results but diplomats are more optimistic about the prospects of this meeting than they have been in the past.

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