With 54 Senate seats, Republicans may encounter difficulty gathering the 60 votes they need to pass legislation rejecting the agreement.
Advertisement
Not since the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki almost 70 years ago has the world been closer to the use of nuclear weapons, former Vice President Dick Cheney told Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Tuesday night.
US President Barack Obama was to hold a press conference later on Wednesday to try to convince Americans of the benefits of the deal, which is likely to face a bruising passage through Congress. In return, in phases beginning as soon as this year, Iran gets out from under crushing economic sanctions.
The United Arab Emirates and Kuwait have both congratulated Iran over the nuclear deal but in private they also remain wary.
White House response: Officials note that Iran, as a sovereign state, can’t be forever blocked from engaging in any nuclear enrichment. “The agreement will allow Iran to arm itself with nuclear weapons either after adhering to the agreement for 10-15 years, or by violating it beforehand”.
“This isn’t diplomacy – it is appeasement”, said Bush, one of the many Republicans who lashed out over the agreement. “As president, I would use every tool in our arsenal to compel rigorous Iranian compliance”.
Criticism: The deal eases sanctions and releases about $100 billion in frozen Iranian assets.
France used to have a strong presence in Iran before the sanctions went into effect, with Peugeot and Renault being major players in the Iranian auto industry and energy giant Total heavily involved in the oil sector. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee.
By the end of the night, as the deal was largely finalized, negotiators were too exhausted for a “triumphant” celebration, a senior US official said.
Win McNamee/Getty Images House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) vowed to fight what he called ‘a bad deal that is wrong for our national security and wrong for our country.’.
“We can develop our programme without restriction” after the 10-year period of limitation, said Araghchi, one day after the Lausanne agreement paved the way to Tuesday’s final deal.
“She’s one of two of the most important, most influential voices in this debate, the other being President Obama”, said New York Rep. Steve Israel, who met with Clinton on Tuesday morning. “Now the Obama administration is just looking at the ayatollahs”, said Mohsen Al-Awaji, a Saudi Sunni Islamist activist. “Nothing we know about the Iranian government suggests that it would simply capitulate under that kind of pressure”.
Under the accord, Tehran would have the right to challenge U.N requests, and an arbitration board composed of Iran and the six world powers would then decide.
As well as restricting Iran’s ability to enrich uranium, the agreement also provides for the redesign of the country’s heavy water plant at Arak.
And it will slash by around two-thirds the number of centrifuges – which can make fuel for nuclear power stations but also the core of a nuclear bomb – from around 19,000 to just over 6,000.
Given the level of distrust and Iran’s history of noncooperation, verification is key. Based on its terms, Iran can delay any site inspection for at least 24 days, long enough to cover up wrongdoing. When a tentative agreement was reached in April, young Iranians took to the streets shouting their support for Rouhani, and the latest deal was met with equal euphoria.
Advertisement
Iran will be able to engage in the global arms trade in five years, thanks to a last-minute provision backed by Russian Federation. “They are 40 times less powerful than a European centrifuge”, said a Western nuclear expert familiar with Iran’s nuclear programme. Obama told him that the agreement on the nuclear issue will not diminish their concerns regarding Iran’s support for terrorism and threats toward Israel.
