U.S. Senator Robert Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat who has frequently clashed with U.S. President Barack Obama over foreign policy, said Tuesday he’ll oppose the nuclear agreement with the regime in Iran.
Sen. Menendez will “vote to disapprove the agreement and, if called upon, would vote to override a veto,” according to remarks prepared for a speech at Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey.
“If Iran is to acquire a nuclear bomb, it will not have my name on it,” he said in the speech.
Sen. Menendez is the second Democrat in the U.S. Senate to oppose the accord between Iran and world powers. Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the third-ranking Democrat in the chamber, said this month he would reject the deal.
Sen. Menendez has criticized elements of the Iran nuclear deal since it was announced in July.
Sen. Menendez, who is a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has echoed Republican concerns that the deal doesn’t eliminate Tehran’s nuclear capabilities.
“I am concerned that the deal enshrines for Iran, and in fact commits the international community, over time, to assisting Iran in developing an industrial-scale nuclear power program,” he said during a committee hearing last month. “I think it fails to appreciate Iran’s history of deception in its nuclear program.”
Sen. Menendez co-sponsored legislation earlier this year that would impose more sanctions on Iran, a bill that Obama vowed to veto if it were enacted while talks to curb the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program continue.
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