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 Opponents of the landmark nuclear agreement hope to use the arms
embargo issue, one of the final obstacles to the accord sealed in
Vienna on Tuesday between Iran and six world powers, to draw some of
Obama’s wavering Democrats into helping to derail it.
“It blows my mind that the administration would agree to lift the
arms and missile bans,” John Boehner, speaker of the U.S. House of
Representatives and the top Republican in Congress, told reporters.
But even as Republicans who control Congress sharpened their
criticism, Obama’s top aides stepped up their defense of the
historic deal to restrict Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for
sanctions relief.
Vice President Joe Biden met Democrats on Capitol Hill for the
second day in a row to make the administration’s case.
Participants said much of the questioning focused on a final
compromise that Obama agreed to for lifting the United Nations ban
on Iran after five years for conventional weapons and eight years
for ballistic missile technology.
“It’s hard for us to accept it, so we just want to take a look at
it,” said Senator Ben Cardin, top Democrat on the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee.
Obama says the deal is the only alternative to Iran moving forward
on developing a nuclear weapon, risking more war in the Middle East.
Tehran has denied seeking a bomb.
Critics of the broader deal say easing sanctions will empower Iran
financially to expand its influence in the Middle East in the near
term. But many lawmakers are just as worried that Tehran’s access to
advanced arms – even years down the line – would give it even
greater ability to fuel regional sectarian strife and threaten U.S.
ally Israel.
With Congress due to begin a 60-day review of the Iran deal,
Republicans hope that misgivings expressed earlier by top Pentagon
officials when the arms embargo issue was still under negotiation
would give them further leverage with Democrats.
Army General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,
told a congressional hearing last week: “Under no circumstances
should we relieve pressure on Iran relative to ballistic missile
capabilities and arms trafficking.”
Obama, at a news conference on Wednesday, shrugged off such
concerns, saying that the U.S. arms embargo would remain in effect
and that the United States and its partners would still have other
ways of preventing Iran from acquiring and sending weapons to
militant groups.
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While critics accused the United States of caving on a last-minute
Iranian demands in order to salvage Obama’s legacy achievement,
Wendy Sherman, a key U.S. negotiator, said the American team always
knew it would have to be resolved at the end of the talks. Russia
and China, two of the world powers involved, had taken Iran's side
and pushed for the arms embargo to be lifted.
She insisted that while Iran wanted an immediate lifting of the
embargo, the United States won a “very tough” bargain in stretching
it out for years.
With a U.N. Security Council vote on a resolution considered likely
as early as next week, the Republican chairs of the House Foreign
Affairs and Homeland Security Committees have sent a letter to Obama
asking him to delay the vote.
The embargo issue was the final major holdup before a deal was
sealed.
On July 8, Obama, under pressure from critics who accused him of
giving too much ground, held a video conference with his team in
Vienna in which he "essentially rejected the deal that was on the
table", in part because he didn’t like the how fast the U.N. embargo
would be removed, a White House official said.
The compromise that ultimately won Obama’s approval extended that
timetable.
Republicans would need the support of dozens of Democrats to sustain
a "resolution of disapproval" that could cripple a deal. But the
odds are considered slim that they could muster enough support to
overrule an Obama veto.
(Additional reporting by David Alexander, Phil Stewart, and Michelle
Nichols; Editing by Stuart Grudgings)
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