Congress is targeting Iran with the piecemeal release of its annual defense bill over the next few days.

The must-pass legislation is expected to contain multiple provisions demanding that the Obama administration continue treating Iran as a US foe even as the two countries negotiate a nuclear agreement, aides tell Al-Monitor. Already, preliminary text released April 21 by the House Armed Services Committee calls on the Pentagon to establish a strategy for countering Iran's "growing unconventional warfare capabilities."

"It just seems to me that what's happening in Yemen right now is further evidence that you can't just look at our relationship with Iran through the prism of one program," Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, told reporters at the start of a briefing April 21. "It's a range of activities that are causing difficulty, and it's pretty hard to isolate just one from another."

Thornberry's comments echo growing congressional concerns that President Barack Obama may be hoping that his nuclear negotiations, if successful, could usher in a new relationship with Tehran even as US Navy ships are seeking to interdict the delivery of weapons to Yemen's Houthi rebels. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif made clear that was his expectation in a New York Times op-ed on April 20.