Obama wins critical backing on Iran deal, virtually ensuring survival in Congress

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Fox News:

The Obama administration now appears to have enough support in Congress to stave off Republican efforts to reject the president's controversial Iran nuclear deal, after a retiring Maryland Democratic senator came out Wednesday morning in favor of the pact.

 

Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., announced her support for the deal as Secretary of State John Kerry delivered a lengthy and detailed address in Philadelphia defending the accord.

 

In his speech, Kerry disputed what he called "false information" circulating on the deal. He said, contrary to the views of many critics, that the deal provides "access" to keep Iran in check, preserves "every option" to respond if Iran balks, and has elements that will last "for the lifetime of Iran's nuclear program."

 

"President Obama and I are convinced beyond any reasonable doubt that the framework that we have put forward will get the job done," Kerry said.

 

But, with Mikulski's endorsement locked down, the speech served more as a public reminder of the administration's stance than a last-minute appeal for support.

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"We have achieved access in our time..."

[Draggingtree]

Is North Korea Blame Game Future of the Iran Deal?

Michael Rubin | @mrubin197109.02.2015 - 5:15 PM

President Barack Obama appears to have secured the 34 Senate votes necessary to guarantee that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), better known as the “Iran deal” becomes law. Iran will reap a $100 billion windfall, money that will disproportionately favor its military. After more than a decade of cheating on its Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) safeguards agreement, Iran essentially emerges with international assistance, a blank slate on its past nuclear weapons research, and an industrial scale program that will enable it to build a nuclear arsenal should it so choose. Read More

[Draggingtree]

Did Netanyahu Lose the Iran Deal Fight for AIPAC?

Jonathan S. Tobin | @tobincommentary09.03.2015 - 1:20 PM

Now that it’s clear that Congress won’t be able to stop President Obama’s Iran nuclear deal, the inevitable postmortems about why he won are starting to be heard. And since the argument about Iran has often been persuaded as a function of a personal feud between Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, it’s hardly surprising that the latter is being blamed for what happened. That’s the upshot of a report in the Israeli press in which an anonymous AIPAC official is quoted as saying that Netanyahu’s speech to Congress was the only reason why the pro-Israel lobby failed to persuade enough Democrats to stop the deal. But for AIPAC to attempt to spin its defeat in this matter is both regrettable and misleading. I believe Netanyahu’s decision to accept House Speaker John Boehner’s invitation to address a joint meeting of Congress was a tactical error and wrote as much repeatedly before he spoke. But the assertion that this incident alone changed the outcome is absurd. Even if Netanyahu had never come to Washington or if he had kept silent about the issue of Iran throughout the last six months, there was never any way AIPAC or anyone else was going to be able to get most Democrats to spurn a sitting president and the popular head of their party on an issue on which he had staked his foreign policy legacy. The Iran deal fight was won by Obama far more than it was lost by Netanyahu.

https://www.commentarymagazine.com/2015/09/03/did-netanyahu-lose-the-iran-deal-fight-for-aipac/#more-901444