Sen. Menendez comes out against Iran deal

“President Obama continues to erroneously say that this agreement permanently stops Iran from having a nuclear bomb”, he said. The deal is designed to curb Iran’s nuclear program through a system of inspections and guidelines in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions on the Islamic Republic.

Menendez said U.S. Secretary of State Kerry told senators the U.S. would demand the dismantling or Iran’s plutonium reactor at Arak, “or will destroy it”. Menendez said he would vote to override a veto. He had been the most vocal Democratic critic of Obama’s foreign policies on Ukraine, Cuba and Iran.

“I came to my decision after countless hours of briefings, discussion and analysis”, he said.

Following the speech, Schaer – the lone Orthodox Jew in the Legislature – issued an emphatic statement of support.

He said he based his judgement according to U.S. interests, as well as what the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action “means for our great ally, the state of Israel and our other partners in the Gulf”.

“Senator Menendez has chosen to try to put us on the path to another war in the Middle East by signaling his opposition to the diplomatic agreement that will prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon”, Sheyman said.

“Hope is part of human nature, but unfortunately it is not a national security strategy”.

The New Jersey Democrat also countered Obama’s assertion that rejecting the agreement would amount to choosing war. For all those who have said they have not heard – from anyone who opposes the Agreement – a better solution, they’re wrong. “I do not believe that it will”, he wrote in an op-ed for The Washington Post published on Monday.

“Many say now is the time for the United States to push back against Iran”. “I think it fails to appreciate Iran’s history of deception in its nuclear program”.

Menendez’s opposition was widely expected, but still represented a blow to the administration’s efforts to rally Democratic support for the deal as Congress prepares to vote on it in September. Corker’s position in the Senate makes him a key lawmaker when it comes to the deal.

Opponents would also need to win two-thirds of House votes. Jeff Flake, who will stick with his party in opposing the deal.

The White House, of course, has an explanation for Republican opposition: The president claims his political foes are inveterate partisans who are unduly influenced by the pro-Israel lobby.

The 435-member House already has more than the 218 votes needed to pass a resolution of disapproval of the accord in that chamber.

Thus far, some 18 Senate Democrats have announced their support for the deal, including Jon Tester of Montana, a hawkish lawmaker opponents of the pact had hoped to recruit to their side. He first voiced concerns when the deal was announced, calling some aspects “worrisome.”

Menendez explained why the United States comes out on the losing end of the deal, citing no limits on an historically deceptive Iran’s uranium stockpile and expressing worry over the fact that in year eight of the proposal, Iran can start manufacturing and testing advanced IR-6 and IR-8 centrifuges that enrich up to 15 times the speed of its current models.