Also, Jewish Senator Charles Schumer from New York as well as Representative Eliot Engel, the ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, have declared they will not join Obama’s rivals to oppose the nuclear accord.
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“When I hear a senator, a congressman stand up and say “We should get a better deal” – that is not going to happen”.
Sen. Chuck Schumer has become the lightning rod for the debate over the agreement with Iran on nuclear proliferation. Senate vote-counters had considered Flake the only truly undecided GOP vote, although his fellow Republicans had expressed confidence he would oppose it. The soldier, whose face is badly scarred, said those who vote for the deal will “be held accountable”.
Now that the pact has been finalized, Kerry said such a heavy-handed approach was an option no longer.
“Are you kidding me?” he asked.
“If we turn around and nix the deal and then tell them, ‘You’re going to have to obey our rules and sanctions anyway, ‘ that is a recipe, very quickly … for the American dollar to cease to be the reserve currency of the world“, Kerry said at a Reuters Newsmaker event. It does so by imposing a series of physical limits on Iran’s nuclear program, especially its production of the fissile material it would require to make a bomb. Significant concessions were made at the last moment, including on ballistic missiles and arms.
The White House, with President Obama leading the way, has insisted that the Iran deal is an alternative to constants wars and hostilities between the U.S. and its allies and the Islamic state.
The president was not wrong when he said that “many of the same people who argued for the war in Iraq are now making the case against the Iran nuclear deal”. “If Congress now rejects this deal, the elements that were fundamental in establishing that worldwide consensus will be gone”.
“Military action would be less effective than the deal, assuming it is fully implemented”, the letter said. While violation of the agreement by Iran will commit the participants to put sanctions back in place, walking away from the deal will give the US little leverage to restore the multi-lateral sanctions that cratered Iran’s economy.
Secretary of State John Kerry and Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz provided regional newspaper reporters with a rare briefing Monday, rebutting the criticisms of Schumer and other opponents.
Officials in the Obama administration meanwhile have said that the president could use executive authority to stop “many U.S. sanctions on Iran” if Congress moves to thwart the deal in its current iteration, reported Politico. He was pushed to resign from the anti-Iran group August 10 because he concluded that strategy succeeded.
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Ten Democrats in the House have said they will support a bill rejecting the deal.
