Deal supporters’ first goal was to muster enough votes in the Senate or House to sustain Obama’s veto of a disapproval resolution.
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On Wednesday, US Senate Democrat Barbara Mikulski announced her support, giving the deal 34 backers in the 100-member Senate – the magic number needed to uphold a certain Obama veto should Congress pass a resolution against the deal.
The deal now has the backing of 37 senators after Heitkamp and two Democratic colleagues joined the list on Thursday.
Approval for the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) signed in Vienna on 14 July now largely hinges on assessment from United Nations nuclear watchdog the global Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA).
U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene, late on Thursday, became the sixth member of Washington’s congressional delegation to support the agreement negotiated by the Obama administration and five major powers, under which Iran would stand down from its nuclear weapons program in exchange for lifting of economic sanctions.
U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Maryland) said Friday that he will not vote to support the proposed Iran nuclear deal.
“Throughout the process of evaluating the Iran nuclear agreement, I continuously returned to two fundamental questions: Is this deal more or less likely to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear weapons state?”
This means that Obama has enough votes to back a veto if Republicans decide to disapprove the deal as expected.
USA lawmakers have until September 17 to vote on a “resolution of disapproval” that would weaken the worldwide pact by eliminating Obama’s ability to temporarily waive many US sanctions on Iran.
Manchin told the crowd at the Craig Civic Center in Kingwood that he knows the majority of West Virginians don’t support a nuclear deal with Iran.
As of Tuesday, 15 Senate Democrats hadn’t announced how they’ll vote. Numerous lawmakers, especially Republicans, believed that the deal made too many concessions to Iran and it could not stop Iran from building nuclear weapons.
Rouhani himself has discouraged Iran’s parliament from voting on the deal, saying that it would cause legal complications to implementing the deal.
“There will be a lot of Republican Senators and Congressman who want to be on record politically opposing it. But the last thing they want is for it to fail”, Cobb added.
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Israel’s message to ordinary Americans, Netanyahu said, would continue to be that “Iran is the enemy of the United States – it declares that openly – and Israel is a US ally”.
