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Sen. Tom Cotton is insisting on simple majority votes on contentious amendments to legislation to provide congressional review of any final nuclear deal with Iran, apparently stymieing the possibility of moving forward, at least for now. The Arkansas Republican sought to line up a pair of amendments that supportive Democratic senators have said could cause them to remove support for the bill. One of those, sponsored by Cotton, would require Iran to allow inspectors full access to suspicious sites. The other, led by Florida Republican Marco Rubio, would require Tehran to recognize Israel’s right to exist. “I think some of...

**SNIP** “I believe the United States will risk isolating itself in the world if there is an agreement and it decides to break it,” said Zarif, who earlier this month returned to a hero’s welcome in Tehran after reaching a temporary framework agreement in Switzerland with the United “Whether you have a Democratic or Republican president, the United States is bound by international law, whether some senators like it or not,” he added. “And international law requires the United States live up to the terms of an agreement it enters into.” Zarif noted that most international agreements are simple executive...

The US Senate rejected on Wednesday an effort to make any lifting of US sanctions on Iran part of an international nuclear agreement dependent on President Barack Obama certifying that Iran is not supporting acts of terrorism against Americans. With some votes still being counted, 54 senators had opposed a proposed amendment to a bill requiring an Iran nuclear deal to be reviewed by Congress, guaranteeing that it would not reach the 60-vote threshold required to move ahead.

Senator Rubio took the floor at 3:15pm and tried to bring 2 of his amendments up - one for Iran to recognize Israel's right to exist, another that the deal should be what the White House said it was in fact sheets earlier this month. Senator Cardin objected saying he is trying to work on an amendment on Iran's terrorism and other amendments. Rubio responded saying he agreed at insistence of other Senators to hold off his amendments in Committee upon assurances they would be heard on the floor. Said it was fine if his amendments aren't heard today but...

As the nuclear negotiations with Iran reach their final phase, President Obama increasingly finds himself at odds with reality. Although the United States has worked for years to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons while limiting Tehran’s attempts to be a regional hegemon, the president’s desperation to secure a deal ­- at whatever cost -­ places both of these goals at serious risk. Rather than stand firm against Iran’s regional expansionism and its constantly shifting nuclear redlines, the president has gone to great lengths to avoid alienating Tehran and repeatedly revised his own definition of success. The result is that...

Today, there is no greater threat to U.S. national security than the prospect of a nuclear Iran. Led by theocratic zealots who have pledged to “annihilate Israel” and who regularly lead chants of “Death to America,” an Iran with nuclear weapons poses an unacceptably high risk of murdering millions of Americans or millions of our allies. For that reason, the top priority for the Senate should be to stop a bad Iran deal. The Senate is now considering the Iran Nuclear Review Agreement Act (Corker-Cardin), which provides that any Iran deal must be submitted to Congress. This legislation started out...

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif calls it “laughable” that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “has become everybody’s nonproliferation guru.” “He’s sitting on 400 warheads, nuclear warheads, acquired in violation of the NPT (non-proliferation treaty),” to which Israel isn’t a party, he tells an audience at New York University. Zarif says that the greatest threat to global security is nuclear weapons possessed by the P5+1 world powers, and next is Israel’s nuclear weapons. He says that he would welcome Saudi Arabia having the same arrangements and enrichment program as Iran under the NPT. “It’s their right.”

In meeting with South Korean minister, PM says: "We both face the threat of rogue states." Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday warned that the recent framework agreement on a Iranian nuclear deal "repeated the mistakes" made during nuclear negotiations with North Korea. The premier reiterated his condemnation of the outline accord reached in early April in Lusanne, Switzerland on Iran's disputed nuclear program, calling it a "historic mistake." During a meeting with with South Korea's Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Hwang Woo-yea, Netanyahu indicated that the tentative agreement would lead to the breakout of nuclear weapons in Iran...

Senators on Tuesday blocked a Republican push to require a final deal on Iran's nuclear program be submitted to the Senate as a treaty. Senators voted 39-57 on Sen. Ron Johnson's (R-Wis.) amendment, which was subjected to a 60-vote threshold. It was the first vote in a series of politically tricky amendments senators are expected to take on a deal reached by Sens. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and Ben Cardin (D-Md.). Their agreement gives lawmakers 30 days to pass a resolution of disapproval on any final Iran deal. Corker suggested ahead of the vote that if the Wisconsin Republican's push was...

Senate Sponsor Rubio, Marco [R-FL] [13] Cotton, Tom [R-AR] [11] Blunt, Roy [R-MO] [4] Risch, James E. [R-ID] [4] Sullivan, Dan [R-AK] Senate Cosponsor Kirk, Mark Steven [R-IL] [6] Toomey, Pat [R-PA] [4] Risch, James E. [R-ID] [3] Rubio, Marco [R-FL] [2]

Senate will resume Iran debate at 3pm. On Tuesday, the Iran bill will be opened up for amendments. On Thursday, final passage is expected in the Senate. On Friday, final passage is expected in the House.

The P5+1 group has accepted to remove all Iran's sanctions immediately after the comprehensive nuclear deal, Head of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali-Akbar Salehi said. Speaking in a televised program on Saturday night, he said that Iran and P5+1 have reached a consensus on the framework of agreement and they are now discussing the details. Iran has a full-scale knowledge of the complete cycle of peaceful nuclear technology, Salehi added. He said that Iran has a stockpile of 90 tons of heavy water and it is producing 20 tons per year which give the country, ability to become...

April 23, 2015: Sen. Tom Cotton speaks on the Senate floor about the Iran nuclear deal

The French nuclear regulator says anomalies found in Areva’s nuclear reactor technology are “very serious” and may be costly to fix. Areva announced April 7 that it found weak spots in the bottom and lid of the European Pressurized Reactor (EPR) vessel, which could reduce the resistance of the metal. Areva said it discovered the flaw during mechanical and chemical tests of a representative model and reported the findings to the French Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN). The ASN told Reuters that a similar Areva forging technique had been used in five EPRs currently in the planning stage or under construction....

RUSH: The New York Times story is by Jo Becker and Mike McIntire, and here's how it begins: "The headline in Pravda trumpeted President Vladimir V. Putin's latest coup, its nationalistic fervor recalling an era when the newspaper served as the official mouthpiece of the Kremlin: 'Russian Nuclear Energy Conquers the World.' The article, in January 2013, detailed how the Russian atomic energy agency, Rosatom, had taken over a Canadian company with uranium-mining stakes stretching from Central Asia to the American West. "The deal made Rosatom one of the world's largest uranium producers and brought Mr. Putin closer to his...

Several Republicans are expected to offer amendments to strengthen the bill. Vote on the bill itself expected next week.

As always, Winston Churchill said it best. Here he is on March 24, 1938, speaking less than two weeks after the Anschluss, the Nazi annexation of Austria: "For five years I have talked to the House on these matters—not with very great success. I have watched this famous island descending incontinently, fecklessly, the stairway which leads to a dark gulf. It is a fine broad stairway at the beginning, but after a bit the carpet ends. A little farther on there are only flagstones, and a little farther on still these break beneath your feet. ... That is the position—that...

The headline in Pravda trumpeted President Vladimir Putin's latest coup, its nationalistic fervor recalling an era when the newspaper served as the official mouthpiece of the Kremlin: "Russian Nuclear Energy Conquers the World." The article, in January 2013, detailed how the Russian atomic energy agency, Rosatom, had taken over a Canadian company with uranium-mining stakes stretching from Central Asia to the American West. The deal made Rosatom one of the world's largest uranium producers and brought Putin closer to his goal of controlling much of the global uranium supply chain. But the untold story behind that story is one that...

For the past couple of years, a young woman known only as “Bionerd23” has been making strange, dangerous videos in and around one of the most infamous nuclear zones on Earth—the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. Nothing is too radioactive or risky for her. She has shown herself getting injected with the radionuclide technetium, eating radioactive apples from a tree in Chernobyl, being chased by a possibly rabid fox, and picking up fragments of the nuclear plant’s reactor fuel with her bare hands. When a freakishly large catfish appears on camera, she calmly explains that it’s probably not a mutant—“They are just...

The Senate could move next week to legislation would create a congressional review process for a nuclear deal with Iran, Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) said Tuesday. “I think it could get here as early as Thursday,” Cardin said, when asked when the legislation would reach the Senate floor. “I don’t think there will be any floor action until next week.” Senators are expected to turn to the Iran legislation, spearheaded by Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), after they pass a bill to curb human trafficking and vote on Loretta Lynch’s nomination for attorney general. Corker and Cardin reached a deal on...