New York Senator Charles Schumer to oppose Iran nuclear deal

In a speech aimed partly at wavering Democratic members of Congress, the US president said that the campaign against the Iran deal reflected the “mindset” that had led to the Iraq war.

President Barack Obama is heavily pressing Congress to approve of the deal, which aims to curb Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for billions of dollars in economic sanctions relief.

Schumer’s formal opposition to the Iran deal is a blow for the Obama administration.

The president, once again, pushed hard for the nuclear deal with Iran and said there are only two ways we can go. Critics of the deal have called Obama’s argument as “utterly false” and have said that President Obama is delegitimizing their concerns warning lawmakers of imminent war if they were to disapprove the accord which they believe is unbecoming of the President.

He said that after 15 years, Iran would have “a green light to be as close, if not closer, to possessing a nuclear weapon as it is today”.

Schumer added that there is no way to be sure that Iran will change its own policies and goals under the deal. Republicans, who control the House and Senate, have been uniformly opposed to the deal. Schumer’s colleague from New York, U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, announced her support on Thursday.

“Let’s not mince words: The choice we face is ultimately between diplomacy and some sort of war – maybe not tomorrow, maybe not three months from now, but soon”, Obama said in a speech at American University Wednesday. I would say he is incompetent, but I don’t want to do that.

Backed by Israel, opponents of the deal vowed to derail it by garnering the needed number of votes to override the expected presidential veto. Under the deal, Iran will maintain but limit its ability to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes, keeping about a third of its 19,000 centrifuges capable of separating the explosive uranium-235 isotope from uranium ore.

In the immediate aftermath of Schumer’s post, New York Representative Eliot Engel, the leading Democrat on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, withdrew his support for the deal.

The White House was “in regular contact” with Schumer and other Jewish Democrats this week, Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes told CNN on Wednesday, and he said administration officials were confident they would support the agreement.

A pro-Israel lawmaker who is a high-ranking Senate Democrat, Schumer is considered pivotal to the Iran deal’s future. “How can we, in good conscience, justify war before we have tested a diplomatic agreement that achieves our objectives?”