Posted on 10/21/2014 10:50:39 AM PDT by Dave346
A leading United States senator has warned that the Obama Administration is heading for confrontation with Congress over its refusal, as reported by the New York Times, to allow congressional approval of a final nuclear deal with Iran.
In a statement to The Algemeiner, Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) declared: “By threatening to cut out Congress from the Iran nuclear deal, the Administration is actually uniting Congress. We will not support an Obama-Khamenei deal that condemns our children to a future where the Middle East is full of nuclear weapons.”
After the signing of the Geneva Accord with Iran in November 2013, Kirk slammed the arrangement as “the deal of the century for Iran,” and one that “undermines sanctions and doesn’t stop a future with Iranian nuclear weapons.”
In a piece for the New York Times yesterday, David Sanger pointed out that it is uncertain whether the U.S. will be able to strike a deal with the Iranians in advance of the November 24 deadline. However, Sanger added, “If agreement is reached, President Obama will do everything in his power to avoid letting Congress vote on it.”
“We wouldn’t seek congressional legislation in any comprehensive agreement for years,” Sanger quoted a “senior official” as saying.
Over the weekend, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) said that “If a potential deal does not substantially and effectively dismantle Iran’s illicit nuclear weapons program, I expect Congress will respond. An agreement cannot allow Iran to be a threshold nuclear state.” Menendez has sponsored legislation to tighten sanctions if no agreement is reached by Nov. 24.
Advocacy groups working on the Iranian nuclear issue also expressed worry.
“First the administration inappropriately characterized members of Congress as warmongers, now it is seeking to bypass Congress entirely,” David Ibsen of United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) told The Algemeiner. “This is wrong. Clearly Congress has a role to play in approving any agreement, given its authority in passing, lifting and potentially increasing sanctions as well as the historic consequences of a potential nuclear agreement with Iran.”
“Any agreement must move Iran off the path toward nuclear weapons capability with terms that ensure Iran has no fortified nuclear facilities, no heavy water reactor and no enrichment capacity that would allow it to produce sufficient weapons grade uranium to ‘break out’ a nuclear device,” said Illinois Democratic Congressman Brad Schneider. “And importantly, any potential agreement that would lead to a potential lessening of the sanctions pressure on Iran must be presented to Congress for approval. It was Congress that established the sanctions, and only with Congressional approval should they be altered.”
Seasoned Iran-watchers remain concerned that American efforts to secure Iranian cooperation in the war against Islamic State terrorists in Syria and Iraq will lead to a potentially fatal compromise over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions. Writing at The Hill, Michael Ledeen, a former consultant to the National Security Council, observed:
Nuclear deal or not, American collaboration with Iran is extremely dangerous, as Khamenei pushes for greater hegemony in the Middle East and, indeed, worldwide. Mohammed Ali Jaafari, the commander of the Revolutionary Guards Corps, made this clear in a recent speech about the Guards’ role in exporting the Iranian Revolution:
“The mission of the Ghods Force is external, to help Islamic movements, to expand the revolution and to provide assistance to suffering people across the world … and to people who need help in such countries as Lebanon, Syria and Iraq. The Guards … views its duty to support and defend the nations under the hegemony of America and Israel and to provide them any technology, something that is even more important than the transfer of weapons.”
The clash between the Obama Administration and Congress over Iran comes as a senior member of the Iranian parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission claimed, as reported by The Algemeiner, that Washington has already made a significant concession to the Iranians. Javad Karimi Qoddousi informed the Mehr news agency that he had been told directly by Seyed Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister and a senior nuclear negotiator, that the Americans were “now coming to terms ” with “4,000 active centrifuges,” despite the fact that in the “New York and Vienna talks, US would not accept 1,300 centrifuges.”
UPDATE: Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA), Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, issued the following statement on Monday night:
“I’m disappointed by reports this morning that the Obama Administration is seeking to deny Congress any role in judging a nuclear deal with Iran.
“In July, I led a bipartisan letter to the President – signed by over 340 Members of Congress – calling for ‘greater consultation with Congress on a potential sanctions relief package that may be part of a final agreement.’ That extensive engagement hasn’t come, even as the Administration is considering such hugely consequential national security decisions. It’s tough to see a solid agreement when Congress – which was critical to putting in the strong sanctions that got negotiators to this point – is so clearly sidelined.
“When asked if the Administration would come to Congress to secure legislative relief of sanctions in a final agreement with Iran, in a Congressional hearing earlier this year, Secretary of State John Kerry responded: ‘(w)ell, of course. We would be obligated to under the law.’ He added that ‘what we do will have to pass muster with Congress.’
“This report is another sign that the Obama Administration may strike an agreement that fails to protect the vital national security interest of the United States and our allies.”
Obama will bypass Congress and they will do nothing.
Zero will say that any deal he reaches with Iran will preclude nuclear weapons, knowing full well that the opposite is true. He’ll simply lie, repeating it loudly and often.
Pfft.....Eboma don’t need no stinkin’ congress.
I don’t think it matters what the U.S. does or doesn’t do, Israel’s not going to tolerate a nuclear Iran. Perhaps Israel is just waiting for the Muslim to leave the White House before they make their big move.
I seriously doubt Israel can wait another 27 months.
On the other hand it amazes me they’ve waited as many years as they have already, so who knows?
I don’t think Congress will have a choice in the matter. It will be presented as a fait accompli and all pursuant laws, regulations and relationships will reflect it no matter how Congress grumbles, and grumbling and whining is ALL that Congress will do. Thus far the military has presented the sole opposition to the Sultan but the military can’t save us. If the military tried the result would present its own problems, win or lose.
Kirk is a joke. He is one of the worst RINOs in the Senate, imo. Worse than Miss Graham.
If Kirk, a RINO, is speaking up, this is something the Senate will kill.
The Obama US can prevent Israel from doing the necessary deed. It can cut off all resupply so that even if Israel successfully takes out the Iran nuclear capacity it will have no resources left to defend itself against its near neighbors. Unless the Israeli strike is nuclear. Then there is a real question of how the ObaUS will react to that. If Israel can take out the Irani Nuke sites then maybe Israel can take out DC, too. Would the Sultan in Washington be cool with that? Could be, if he has taken that into consideration and stays out of DC. Obama would like to see the USA severely weakened or even destroyed, and he really doesn’t care who does it. Without the USA backstop for Israel, even nukes won’t make Israel invulnerable to the Mohammedan horde.
That’s exactly what the whole problem here is. It’s not Obama, the guy is an enemy of the United States. That fact is firmly established. The problem is Congress that does absolutely nothing about it.
No court, not even the USSC can stop him.
Congress was given the exclusive power to remove him, but cannot force him to act in any particular fashion.
The only good news with this Iran thing is, once Obama is out of office any deal he struck is null and void.
And the Congress and GOP should announce that from every rooftop.
“A leading United States senator has warned that the Obama Administration is heading for confrontation with Congress over its refusal, as reported by the New York Times, to allow congressional approval of a final nuclear deal with Iran.”
And what are they going to do if he does it? Other than
get back up after getting pimp slapped to their knees by the
Obama, absolutely nothing. Oh they will probably sit on
their hands flap their arms and cluck like chickens but
that will be it. The same with his amnesty plan. They are
spineless and they think talking tough will give them one.
That is if they can drag themselves away from playing jump rope
and hopscotch.
Thenherpo of benghazi will proclaim the agreement is not a treaty.
Israel will piss and moan.
Issa will hold another hearing.
A repub member will proclaim that the Hero of benghazi is doing something illegal.
A leader of the house or senate will proclaim that they can’t impeach the resident.
Another scandal/disaster, which eclipses the previous ones, will emerge.
Yep.
Actually Obama doesn’t really care. Hopefully we get the Senate so the SOB will have to care.
And a whole raft of Freepers will scream and holler for us to elect more RINOs to keep that all going. Like they do now. No matter what. Because dems are worse. And stuff.
Last Dec(2013) Kirk and Menendez had their bill that designated a list of additional sanctions that would be imposed on Iran if the negotiations were to fall thru. This was a very big deal at the time, and many said that if the legislation passed, it would undermine the negotiations.
The NeoCons, led by Kirk(who some designate a RINO) and the Liberal Interventionists, led by Menendez, had 58 cosigners on the legislation and it was rumored that they would get 61 votes on cloture. AIPAC supported.
The Realists, led by republican Corker and democrat Feinstein were opposed. The Isolationists also opposed and were led by Rand Paul. The antiwar dems were also opposed. J Street opposed.
Because of the opposition, Reid would not let the legislation onto the floor without an amendment to soften the language.
They spent a couple of months fighting over the amendment until AIPAC dropped their support and it all died.
People need to realize that there is a possibility that P5 plus 1 may become dis-unified over this. If Kirk and Menendez are displeased with the outcome of the negotiations and want to re-instate sanctions, there is no guarantee that China and/or others would go along.
The Constitution gives the President responsibility and authority to enforce the laws of the US. No one else. Congress can remove a president who fails to enforce the laws. That would be a "high crime".
“The supreme leader has issued a fatwa against the development of nuclear weapons,” he said during his address at the U.N. General Assembly on Sept. 24.
“Iran’s supreme leader has issued a fatwa against the development of nuclear weapons,” Obama told reporters after the phone call three days later, described as the first direct communication between sitting U.S. and Iranian presidents since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
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