Dem Kildee: I support Obama’s Iran nuclear deal

Dempsey said that while the nuclear deal did prevent Iran from producing an atomic weapon, it did not address other concerns about Tehran’s malign activities in the region.

Secretary of State John Kerry, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey also testified before the committee, and Obama was to meet later Wednesday with Democratic lawmakers behind closed doors to discuss the deal.

Welch made the remarks in an interview with Press TV on Thursday when asked to comment on a report which says the Obama administration is confronting a tougher-than-expected fight with Congress over the Iran nuclear accord and is struggling to get enough votes to ensure its survival.

While the tone of the hearing was more decorous than last week’s Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on the Iran pact, there was strong pushback from several GOP senators, including Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz. It would have effectively restricted Iran’s nuclear program to peaceful purposes in exchange for lifting economic sanctions that had, by global agreement, been biting hard on the Iranian regime.

“I’m going to go home and make up my mind”, said Lipinski, who added that AIPAC was making robocalls with a message to vote against the deal.

Despite Tehran’s sudden access to roughly US$50 billion in foreign reserves once sanctions are lifted, “it will take them years to get back to where they would have been if sanctions had not been put in place”.

He’s been vocal in urging his colleagues that, when evaluating the deal, not to forget that Iran continues to hold prisoner his constituent, 32-year-old Amir Hekmati, among other U.S. citizens. “If you read the agreement, they are absolutely critical to its success”, he said.

Nadler met one-on-one with the president before the entire House Democratic caucus heard a 20-minute presentation by Obama on the details of the deal.

“I believe that Israel, the region, and the world are far more secure if Iran does not move toward possession of a nuclear weapon”, longtime Rep. Sander Levin, D-Mich., said in a statement that referenced his Jewish faith.

Even if the Republican-run Congress passes a resolution of disapproval of the deal, Obama can veto it. That would force opponents to muster a two-thirds vote of Congress to override a veto and defeat the agreement, a hard task at best. And he said American spying activities would keep an eye on Iran.

“Simply, he is innocent, has committed no crime, and Iran needs to unilaterally release him”, Kildee said of Hekmati.

“It’s not just Iran, but it’s others as well, but that’s why we’re trying to make investments in that area and pull up our socks in the cyber area, but I can’t reassure you on the cyber front”, Defense Secretary Ash Carter told Ernst.

“We are aware of what the basics of it are”, Kerry told the committee members. It’s not clear whether we’ve been able to read it. That is the tradition with the IAEA.

The Obama administration has been working all-out to convince members of Congress, and the public, to back the nuclear accord.