Last bid to kill Iran nuclear deal blocked in Senate

The Senate voted Tuesday 56-42 for the second time in a week to block a resolution that would have disapproved of the deal.

Iran and China have close economic, diplomatic, energy and trade ties and China remains actively pushing Iran and the U.S.to reach an agreement on the nuclear program in Iran.

In the end, the Senate will probably not vote directly on approval or disapproval of the agreement, and Republicans and Democrats can blame each other for the confusing result.

How the deal could play out across the globe – perspectives on and about Israel, The Gulf, broader US foreign policy, and of course, Iran.

Without being given any information on the deal, 45 percent of respondents said they support it, while 44 percent said they were opposed.

He characterized his proposed amendment as a way to test whether Democratic senators really care about Israel and human rights, as they claim to do even while blocking a vote that would let the American people know where their respective senators stand on the nuclear deal.

What’s the difference? Thanks to our Republican Congress, now the president only needed 34 votes in the Senate to sustain a veto and 41 to sustain a filibuster, which most recently happened. Ted Cruz of Texas and Marco Rubio of Florida were among the senators pushing the proposals to force Iran to recognize Israel as a state and secure the release of four Americans detained in Iran earlier this year as part of the congressional review law.

The unresolved fate of American prisoners being held in Iran has long cast a shadow over the nuclear pact with Tehran.

Under the terms of that agreement, the regime in Tehran agrees to allow monitoring of its nuclear program in exchange for the world powers lifting sanctions, returning tens of billions of dollars of frozen assets, and allowing Iran to continue to enrich uranium at levels below that required for nuclear weapons.

Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) blasted McConnell’s procedural moves as a waste of the Senate’s nine remaining work days to avert a government shutdown.

Meanwhile, Iran is preparing for a visit later this week from Yukiya Amano, the head of the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog agency that will be tasked with overseeing the agreement.

A disapproval resolution would have had to pass both the Senate and House of Representatives by midnight on Thursday, and survive Obama’s veto, to be enacted. Support was lower still, 45 percent, in a separate support question which included fewer details about the agreement.

Dershowitz admits Obama may refuse to sign that type of legislation, but it would put the president in a curious position.