WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. senators are very close to reaching a deal on legislation to sanction Russia over its actions on Ukraine, the two senators working on the bill said on Sunday.
Senators Bob Menendez and James Risch, the chairman and top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said they were going to move forward on the bill this week.
(Reporting by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
By Patricia Zengerle and Doina Chiacu
WASHINGTON (Reuters) — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry mounted a furious counterattack against critics of the Iran nuclear deal on Thursday, telling skeptical lawmakers that rejection of the accord would give Tehran “a great big green light” to swiftly accelerate its atomic program.
Testifying before Congress for the first time since Iran and world powers reached the deal last week, Kerry fought back against accusations by a senior Republican that America’s top diplomat was “fleeced” by Iranian negotiators in the final round of the Vienna talks.
He insisted that those who oppose the deal, which curbs Iran’s nuclear program in return for sanctions relief, are pushing an unrealistic alternative that he dismissed as a “sort of unicorn arrangement involving Iran’s complete capitulation.”
“The fact is that Iran now has extensive experience with nuclear fuel cycle technology,” Kerry told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “We can’t bomb that knowledge away. Nor can we sanction that knowledge away.”
Kerry said that if Congress turns thumbs down on the deal, “the result will be the United States of America walking away from every one of the restrictions we have achieved.”
“We will have squandered the best chance we have to solve this problem through peaceful means,” he said as Congress began a 60-day review of the deal to decide whether to support or reject it.
Opening the hearing, the committee’s Republican chairman, Bob Corker, offered scathing criticism of Kerry for the terms he secured in negotiating the deal. “Not unlike a hotel guest that leaves only with a hotel bathrobe on his back, I believe that you’ve been fleeced,” he said.
Corker chided Kerry and other administration officials for their line of argument that the only alternative to the Iran deal would be more war in the Middle East, saying that the real alternative would be a better deal.
U.S. Senator Ben Cardin, the top Democrat on the committee, said he has not yet decided how he would vote but said he felt U.S. negotiators had made significant progress.
“Our negotiators got an awful lot, particularly on the nuclear front,” Cardin said.
Under a bill President Barack Obama signed into law in May, Congress has until Sept. 17 to approve or reject the agreement.
Republicans control majorities in both houses of Congress. Many have come out strongly against the pact, which they say will empower Iran and threaten U.S. ally Israel.
Obama, who could gain a legacy boost from his diplomatic outreach to U.S. foe Iran, needs to convince as many of his fellow Democrats as possible to back the deal.
If a disapproval resolution passes Congress and survives a veto, Obama would be unable to waive most of the U.S. sanctions imposed on Iran, which could cripple the nuclear pact.
(Additional reporting by Idrees Ali and David Brunnstrom; Writing by Matt Spetalnick; Editing by James Dalgleish)
Photo: U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry makes a statement to the media before a closed door briefing with House members on the recent Iran nuclear deal in Washington July 22, 2015. REUTERS/Gary Cameron
By William Douglas, McClatchy Washington Bureau (TNS)
WASHINGTON — A majority of Americans favor a nuclear deal with Iran while also supporting the use of U.S. troops to prevent the Tehran government from obtaining nuclear weapons, according to a new poll by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.
The survey, released Monday, found that 59 percent of Americans support the framework of an agreement with Iran while 36 percent oppose it. Simultaneously, 67 percent of Americans back deploying U.S. military forces to keep Iran from gaining a nuclear weapon.
The poll of 2,034 adults nationwide was conducted between May 25 and June 17. Its results come on the eve of a deadline for Iran, the United States and five other world powers to reach an accord in Vienna.
The framework of the deal, announced in April, has stirred vigorous debate in Congress with the majority of Republicans and a handful of Democrats opposing it. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair Bob Corker (R-TN) said he spoke with Secretary of State John Kerry and urged him not to rush into a bad deal for the sake of legacy-building.
“I urged him to please take their time, try to get _ make sure these last remaining red lines that haven’t been crossed _ they have crossed so many _ do not get crossed, and, qualitatively, they don’t make it worse than where it already is,” Corker said Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
(c)2015 McClatchy Washington Bureau. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
File photo: Secretary of State John Kerry (2nd L) stands next to Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif (2nd R) during a round of nuclear negotiations on March 2, 2015, in Montreux, Switzerland (AFP/Evan Vucci)
By Jonathan Tamari, The Philadelphia Inquirer (TNS)
WASHINGTON — Tuesday was seemingly made for Sen. Robert Menendez.
Two of the top priorities of his congressional career — U.S. relations with Iran and Cuba — were pushed to the forefront, each reaching a critical decision point.
But after years of leading on both fronts, Menendez, D-N.J., joined the debate Tuesday from a newly weakened position, having given up his seat as the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee as he faces federal corruption charges.
“He’s still there, but his wings are clipped,” said Peter Feaver, who served in national security posts in the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations.
Menendez has been one of Congress’ most influential hawks on Iran and Cuba, bucking the Obama administration on both as he rose to the top of the committee.
“This would have been Menendez’s moment,” Feaver said. “Those two issues have never before been as prominent at the same time … with the opportunity for policy decisions that would have tremendous consequences and set the agenda for a decade or more to come.”
Ironically, key moves involving both countries arrived Tuesday during Menendez’s first Foreign Relations hearing since returning to rank-and-file status.
On Iran, the committee voted unanimously to advance a bill with his name on it that would give Congress oversight on any final deal between the United States, international powers, and Iran over Tehran’s nuclear program.
While Menendez drafted the measure with the chairman, Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., the final version was negotiated by Corker and Sen. Benjamin Cardin, D-Md., Menendez’s replacement.
As the committee voted on that compromise, the Obama administration announced plans to remove Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, a move Menendez has ferociously opposed.
Menendez still had a say in each debate — and was lavishly praised by his colleagues for his work — but he no longer has the formal clout that comes with a ranking post.
Before, “he had arguably one of the most important Democratic perches outside of the executive branch” on foreign policy, said Feaver, who teaches at Duke University.
Now that perch belongs to Cardin, who is more closely aligned with the White House on Iran and Cuba.
When the committee filed into the room for its meeting, it was Cardin, not Menendez, who sat immediately to Corker’s left. Then came Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and then Menendez.
The seemingly minor shift visualized the change in a chamber steeped in hierarchy and protocol.
Menendez gave up his post as top Democrat after being charged with accepting lavish gifts in exchange for using his influence to help a campaign donor.
He has said he followed the law and has vowed to be vindicated, but temporarily stepped down so as not to cause a distraction for his party, spokeswoman Patricia Enright wrote in an email.
Menendez, his aides, and other senators said he remains influential.
“I’m playing just about every role I would (have), for all intents and purposes,” Menendez said as reporters mobbed him to ask his take on the Iran bill’s final compromise.
Menendez spoke with both Corker and Cardin as the compromise was made, Enright said, making his input known. And the staff Menendez hired remains on the committee under Cardin, leaving his team with hands-on influence.
Menendez praised the bill that cleared the committee, and had enough fight to jab, “I’ve got to believe that the administration, if they were smart, would embrace this bill.”
Corker, Cardin and others went out of their way to praise Menendez.
Corker opened Tuesday’s meeting by saying, “I can’t imagine a member being more constructive,” and adding that Menendez’s leadership helped make significant legislation possible. (He chaired the Foreign Relations Committee until Republicans took control early this year.)
Cardin said that Menendez deserves “strong thanks” and that he “did not want to become the ranking member under these circumstances.”
He added, “I hope that Senator Menendez’s issues will be resolved very quickly.”
Menendez praised Cardin as a replacement.
Later, the son of Cuban immigrants blasted Obama’s decision to remove Cuba from the list of sponsors of terrorism, saying it “sends the wrong message.”
Cardin, though, called it “an important step” toward “a more constructive relationship with Cuba.”
Earlier, there was a more subtle sign of the shift in standing.
Asked if he would support the compromise Iran bill, Menendez said, “I have to see the final version, but if it’s as it was explained to me by Senator Cardin, the answer is yes.”
A few weeks ago, the Democrat working out the final version and explaining it to colleagues would have been Menendez.
(c)2015 The Philadelphia Inquirer, Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC
Photo: www.glynnlowe.com via Flickr
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