Klobuchar, Franken Back Iran Nuclear Deal

“Overstating the case for the agreement belies the gravity of the issue and does more to breed distrust than win support“, the former New York mayor, now reinstalled at the helm of his media empire, said August. 11 in a Bloomberg column. First, Iran is unlikely to respond to congressional disapproval by enriching uranium with reckless abandon and thereby validating the skeptics who never trusted its commitment to a exclusively peaceful nuclear program….

Schumer is right that this is a vote of conscience.

The Swiss government also stressed that “the vast majority of global sanctions against Iran, including all of the sanctions adopted by the UN Security Council, will remain in force for the time being”, and said it would reimpose the lifted sanctions if Iran failed to follow through on the deal. In exchange, Iran has agreed to a decade of tough restrictions on its nuclear program.

Republicans are nearly universally opposed at this point.

Now that the pact has been finalized, Kerry said, such an approach was no longer an option. So, I’m on the phone to those countries, those embassies, those ambassadors, asking them the question, ‘What will you do if the United States walks away? “It is based on verification and the knowledge that we have the ability to enforce this regime”.

Israel and many of its supporters say Iran, whose leaders preach anti-Semitism and have called for the destruction of the Jewish state, can not be trusted, even with the 24-hour-a-day monitoring and regular inspections called for in the agreement. Moreover, the letter also contained an unmistakable warning: “If the deal is rejected by America, the Iranians could have a nuclear weapon within a year”, it said.

It’s easy to see why Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanayahu and his Labor party nemesis Isaac Herzog are united against the Iran deal.

Kerry said a potential loss of U.S. financial and political clout is something that may not happen overnight. “For years, Iran has used force and terrorism to expand its influence in the Middle East, actively supporting military or terrorist actions in Israel, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq and Gaza”, he said.

Launched this week with a powerful new television ad, the group “Vets Against the Deal” aims to inform Americans about the brutal violence Iran has sponsored, by featuring servicemen who were victims of Iranian-made bombs in the War on Terror.

In many ways, the Corker bill was designed precisely for elected officials like Schumer, to politically take a stand “against” the Iran deal without any real practical effect. He cited the French oil company Total as one that would suffer if it dealt with Iran, because then it would be locked out from the U.S. market.

However, Politico reports he is calling colleagues to explain his decision and assure them he will not attempt to whip opposition. “This is a vote of conscience”.