“Bottom line: Iran possessing a nuclear weapon would be a game-changing event that cannot and will not be allowed”, Gillibrand wrote in a statement Thursday, “That was true then - and it remains true today”.
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Schumer’s defection deals a significant blow to President Obama. Robert Menendez expressed severe reservations about the Iran deal, saying this didn’t end Iran’s nuclear program, it preserved it.
Schumer’s defection is unlikely to seriously undermine the agreement, which needs support from only a single vote more than one-third of the House and Senate to sustain Obama’s promised veto of “any legislation that prevents the successful implementation of this deal“.
Schumer, who is expected to be the next leader of the Senate Democratic Caucus after Democratic Sen. House Foreign affairs committee ranking member Eliot Engel, D-NY, also just came out against the deal.
Directly referencing President Obama’s assertion that opponents of the deal were akin to warmongers, the leading lawmaker said his opposition was “not because I believe war is a viable or desirable option, nor to challenge the path of diplomacy“. Most people fail to understand that Iran’s nuclear program was exclusively for energy, however Western propaganda pushed by the United States combined and misinterpreted the two different ideas, Swanson said.
Schumer said lawmakers would come to their own conclusions but that he would try to persuade other senators to vote against the Iran deal.
Yet in recent weeks, some Republicans have pulled no punches to criticize Obama over the agreement, which would lift sanctions on Iran in exchange for Tehran mothballing its ambitions to build a nuclear weapon for at least a decade. “But the calculation still is we’ll have the votes [without him]”.
She said if Iran violates the deal in any way, Western powers will be in a better position to know than before, and the U.S. will be able to reimpose sanctions immediately as well as execute a military response.
Another GOP presidential contender, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, said Obama is marching Jews “to the door of the oven” – a reference to both the Holocaust and Israel’s strong opposition to the agreement. He said some of those who oppose the agreement “accept the choice of war”. The Iran deal is President Obama’s top priority; he will be certain to veto any vote to reimpose sanctions. Angus King of Maine, have announced their support for the deal. Because Israel is lobbying Congress to block the Iran deal, and polls show deep public distrust of Iran, Obama opted to turn up the heat on the naysayers, suggesting their facts were wrong, their comprehension suspect, or their motives purely partisan.
That’s why the US has labeled Iran as one of only three nations who are “state sponsors of terrorism”.
House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi is said to be assembling a team aimed at securing the necessary votes to uphold the veto.
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The New York senator had told the White House that he had decided to reject the nuclear agreement and would announce it on Friday.
