Republicans Effort to Kill Iran Deal Blocked by US Senate
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – An effort by Republicans to kill the Iran nuclear agreement has been blocked by the US Senate, preparing the ground for the accord’s implementation.
42 Democrats voted on Thursday in favor of the agreement and prevented a resolution disapproving the deal, Reuters reported.
The Republicans, however, have vowed to continue to fight, expressing the hope that some Democrats would vote differently next time.
"We'll revisit the issue next week and see if maybe any folks want to change their minds," the Senate's Republican majority leader, Mitch McConnell, said in a speech angrily denouncing the vote.
Under a law Obama signed in May, Congress has a 60-day period ending on September 17 to pass a resolution disapproving of the July 14 agreement reached between Iran and six world powers in the Austrian city of Vienna.
If such a resolution were to pass, and survive Obama's promised veto, it would bar the president from waiving many US sanctions on Tehran, a key component of the nuclear deal.
But there was no sign any votes would change, and Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid bluntly responded, "This matter is over with."
Reid urged McConnell to move on to other legislation, including bills providing long-term highway and transportation funding and urgent legislation to fund the government in the fiscal year beginning October 1 and avoid a government shutdown.
"This is a situation where he's (McConnell) lost the vote and it's a situation where he is just not in touch with reality as it exists," Reid said.
The defeat came despite an intense $40 million lobbying campaign against the agreement, largely by conservative pro-Israel groups.
On Thursday, House members voted strictly along party lines, with 245 Republicans voting yes and 186 Democrats voting no, to pass a resolution finding that Obama had not complied with terms of the Iran nuclear review act he signed in May.
Some Republicans argued that the 60-day window for reviewing the deal had never opened because Obama had not sent Congress details of what they termed "secret side deals" regarding inspections of Iran's nuclear facilities.
The House was to vote on Friday on two other Iran-related measures, a resolution of approval of the Iran deal that Republicans hoped to defeat by a wide margin, and a separate one that would bar Obama from waiving sanctions.
But none of the three would have a direct impact on the nuclear pact similar to that of a disapproval resolution, a mechanism outlined in the Iran review act.
