Obama: Iran vote most important foreign issue since Iraq war

President Obama said Wednesday the deal with Iran on its nuclear program does not resolve all our problems with the Islamic republic, “but it achieves one of our most critical security objectives”. Republicans in Congress overwhelmingly oppose the nuclear agreement, saying it does not go far enough to ensure Iran will never be able to develop a nuclear weapon.

“Those who call for a “better deal” are ignorant of the Iranian society or just not being straight with the American people”, he said.

Those words seemed directly not only at his Congressional opponents, but to Prime Minister Benjamin Nethanyahu, who in 2002 testified before Congress, warning of Iraqi centrifuges the size of washing machines.

Obama’s speech was part of an intense summer lobbying campaign by both supporters and opponents of the nuclear deal. It’s where President John F. Kennedy in 1963 famously made his case for engaging in nuclear diplomacy with the Soviet Union.

Two more Democrats, Patrick Leahy from Vermont and Chris Murphy from Connecticut, also came out in favor of the Iran deal on Wednesday.

“By killing this deal, Congress would not only pave Iran’s pathway to a bomb, it would accelerate it”, he said.

Iran must report on the possible military dimensions of its past nuclear program to the IAEA by mid-October.

Speaking on the Senate floor, McConnell cited concerns expressed by Democratic lawmakers that the agreement lacks sufficient safeguards, could lead to nuclear weapons race in the region and leaves limited options to prevent Iran’s nuclear breakout.

Earlier at a Senate Banking Committee hearing on Iran, Corker asked a lead U.S. negotiator of the deal, “Why now will you not give us the documents that exist that are so important to all of us relative to the integrity of this?”

He noted that the same people who are against the Iran deal supported the Iraq war, a conflict in which thousands of lives were lost and almost $1 trillion spent. More than a decade later, he says the fight over the Iran deal is with the same group of neoconservatives politicians and commentators who beat the drum for war over diplomacy to meet what turned out to be a nonexistent threat in Iraq.

Obama said the nuclear deal with Iran builds on the tradition of strong diplomacy that won the Cold War without firing any shots. “Walk away from this agreement, and you will get a better deal – for Iran”. Critics have angrily denounced Obama’s rhetoric and what they say is a false dichotomy between war and peace.

Obama called the agreement, involving the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France, Germany and Iran following unprecedented global sanctions was “the strongest non-proliferation agreement ever negotiated”.

Democratic lawmakers may get an earful from constituents during their August recess, before Congress votes on the deal in September.

Obama also said that the debate on the pact that Congress has scheduled is the most important such discussion on a foreign policy question since that involving the authorisation to go to war in Iraq in 2002.