Hs to pass Iran nuclear deal
President Barack Obama secured a major foreign policy victory after he garnered enough votes to ensure that Congressional opponents to the Iran nuclear deal cannot block the landmark accord.
Barbara Mikulski on Wednesday became the 34th senator to express support for the deal. Republicans hoped to have enough votes to override a presidential veto to thwart their efforts to block the deal. But the move by Mrs Mikulski has denied them the two-thirds majority that they would need.
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The White House is now trying to get support from seven more Democrats, which would enable his party to block the Republican measure from even reaching his desk, and requiring a presidential veto.
“No deal is perfect, especially one negotiated with the Iranian regime,” said Mrs Mikulski, a veteran Democrat senator from Maryland who is not seeking re-election next year after serving five six-year terms.
But after meeting with diplomats, experts, Jewish constituents and even travelling to Vienna to meet with the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency the senator said that she had concluded that the deal negotiated by the Obama administration was the “best option available to block Iran from having a nuclear bomb”.
Republicans, who control both houses of Congress, have been nearly unanimous in their opposition to the Iran deal unveiled in July after months of negotiations.
While Republicans cannot kill the international deal negotiated alongside the UK, France, Germany, Russia and China, they have threatened to make it more difficult for the Obama administration to lift sanctions against Iran and live up to its end of the bargain, which will see Iran curtail its nuclear programme in return.
With pro-Israel lobby groups applying heavy pressure, support from Democrats has been anything but guaranteed. But Mr Obama has managed to avoid a mass defection. Just two Democratic senators have said they would vote against the deal, although one of those is New York Senator Charles Schumer, who is widely expected to take over the leadership of the party in the Senate after the next election.
Wednesday’s success for Mr Obama is unlikely to mean an end to the political sniping in Washington over the Iran deal.
All of the major Republican presidential candidates vying to succeed Mr Obama after the 2016 election are opposed to it. Republicans in Congress are also likely to bring a resolution opposing the deal to a vote in the coming weeks.
It also is unlikely to bring an end to the more perplexing diplomatic conundrum presented by the opposition to the deal by key US allies, including Israel.
No deal is perfect, especially one negotiated with the Iranian regime
- Senator Barbara Mikulski
Saudi King Salman is due to make his first visit to Washington and the White House on Friday and the Obama administration has been working hard to reassure the kingdom that it remains a committed ally.
In a letter sent Wednesday to members of Congress, secretary of state John Kerry stressed Washington’s continuing security commitments to Israel and the Gulf Arab states.
“I really believe the fastest way to a genuine arms race in the Middle East is to not have this agreement,” Mr Kerry also said in a nationally broadcast interview. “Because if you don’t have this agreement, Iran has already made clear what its direction is.”
While most of the Gulf states remain wary about the deal, they have been swayed to provide cautious support in public because the Obama administration has promised to provide more military support and also to take more aggressive measures to tackle other Iranian activities in the Middle East.
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