Corker, Cardin Urge President Obama To Postpone United Nations Vote On Iran

Bob Corker, R-Tenn., the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, in Persian as well.

Senator Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat who serves on the Senate intelligence committee, said Thursday that he was frustrated that some of his colleagues seem to be taking a stand on the Iran agreement without thoroughly vetting it. He said Biden responded with an explanation of the “differences between the executive and legislative branches”.

“The Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act, a bill which 98 Senators and 400 Representatives supported and you signed, established a 60-day period for Congress to consider the nuclear agreement”, said the letter to Obama Thursday by Sens. Cardin said he anticipates a hearing as early as next week.

“I’m very optimistic about our ability to support the president”, she said. “This is exactly what we were trying to stop”.

“I think it is somewhat presumptuous to take it to the United Nations for a vote before the Congressional review is over”, Cardin told reporters after the meeting. He suggested the White House may believe it lived up to the “spirit of the law”.

Zarif expressed the hope that his comments “may enrich the knowledge of the authors to recognize that according to global law, Congress may not modify the terms of the agreement at any time as they claim, and if Congress adopts any measure to impede its implementation, it will have committed a material breach of USA obligations”.

“The Obama administration has lots of questions to answer”, Royce said. Chris Coons (D-Del.) of Biden.

Obama has already vowed to veto legislation blocking the agreement, which could become his signature foreign policy achievement. But for all practical purposes it gave the president all the power. “I’m not convinced that greater engagement with this terrorist regime will in any way moderate their behavior”.

Kerry is scheduled to testify July 23 earlier than Corker’s panel.

The diplomatic push left some U.S. lawmakers flabbergasted because it presses for United Nations action before Congress has had its chance to weigh in.

For Republican lawmakers, the move is a unsafe subjugation of US sovereignty and an insult to Congress’s oversight role. Corker said it’s possible briefings could start as soon as next week, and that he wants to hear testimony from Secretary of State John Kerry and Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, the two negotiators of the agreement, as well as Treasury Secretary Jack Lew on the question of sanctions.

The first hurdle is each chamber’s foreign policy committee, Corker’s and the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Attendees said the White House stayed away from making sales pitches about Obama’s legacy or securing a win for the White House with a sustained veto. And unless Congress rejects it, requiring 60 votes up front and 67 to override a presidential veto, 60 votes up front to overcome a filibuster, Obama can lift sanctions any time after that 30-day period. “[They said the] money would be used to help the economy”. Most ominous, however, is the inevitable massive nuclear proliferation in the Sunni world in response to the Iran’s status as a threshold nuclear weapons nation.

“The only thing that is bipartisan [about the Iran nuclear agreement] today is that there are skeptics on both sides”, Corker told MSNBC’s Morning Joe, the same day. Others, like myself, are going to continue to reserve judgment. “I guess the alternative is to keep negotiating”, he said. Some, like Democratic Sens. I look at that as an affront to Congress and the House of Representatives. While the President likely has enough votes to over-ride the veto, the Iran deal could become another political hot potato pitting liberal democrats and libertarians against moderate democrats and most Republicans.

We are all too aware of the threat of ISIS, and appalled by the ugly atrocities it carries out with kitchen knives and conventional weapons.

Remember how we got here. “I’m going to continue to review before I make decision”.