US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) and other congressional leaders are expressing doubts about Congress signing off on an agreement with the Iranian regime to curb its nuclear program in return for an end to international sanctions.
McConnell, a Republican, told “Fox News Sunday” that the deal will be “a very hard sell” for the Obama administration in Congress.
McConnell spoke shortly after diplomats said on Sunday that negotiators at the Iran nuclear talks were expected to reach a provisional agreement.
McConnell predicted that the Republican-run Senate would pass a resolution of disapproval on an Iran agreement, perhaps with more than 60 votes, including a few Democrats.
Obama would presumably veto that resolution, McConnell noted, and then need votes from at least 34 Senate Democrats to sustain that veto.
New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday that the pending deal makes him anxious because the U.S. has gone from making sure the Iranian regime does not have nuclear capability to managing it.
South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, said a nuclear Iran was the “worst possible nightmare for the world” and criticised the Obama administration for its weakness in negotiations.
US House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said on Sunday he would applaud President Barack Obama for walking away from the talks because “no deal is better than a bad deal.”
“From everything that’s leaked from these negotiations, the administration’s backed away from almost all of the guidelines that they set up for themselves. And I don’t want to see a bad deal. And so if, in fact, there’s no agreement, the sanctions are gonna go back in place,” Boehner said on CBS “Face the Nation”.
The talks have dragged nearly two weeks beyond the initial June 30 deadline by which six world powers and the Iranian regime were supposed to finalize an agreement. A framework agreement reached earlier this year would limit but not entirely eliminate Tehran’s nuclear program in exchange for a gradual lifting of certain international sanctions. But negotiators are still hung up over a handful of issues, including the scope of access United Nations inspectors will have to nuclear sites and how to handle international sanctions that ban Tehran from buying or selling missiles and conventional weapons.
Boehner said the Iranian regime must abandon its efforts to create a nuclear weapon and stop sponsoring terror groups around the world. If those two things don’t happen, he said, “we’ll have a standoff.”
But that option, Boehner added, is “a lot better than legitimizing this rogue regime,” which is what would happen if there is a deal.
Former Senator Jim Webb of Virginia, who’s seeking the Democratic nomination for president, said he’d be “very hesitant” to agree to the terms that have leaked out of the marathon negotiations in Vienna, Austria.
Also appearing on “Fox News Sunday,” Webb said he agrees with a “lot with what Mitch McConnell just said.”
“There are other ways that we can improve relations with Iran,” Web said. “You don’t have to have this deal in order to move forward with them.”
Iranian regime and Western officials said it was unlikely they would be able to finalize an agreement on Sunday, saying the earliest an agreement could be ready was more likely Monday.