Top Dem: Obama May Go Beyond Law for Iran Deal

“That’s why we are under instructions from the president to preserve, and indeed we are improving – and I can’t get into that here – the military option”, Carter said.

Their statements come after multiple White House meetings this week between Obama and House Democrats, intended to counter an intense lobbying effort by AIPAC, which is behind a multimillion-dollar ad campaign.

Kerry lashed back: “Congressman, I don’t need any lessons from you about who I represent”.

“We’re also continuing to advance our military capabilities that provide all options, as [President Barack Obama] has directed, should Iran walk away from its commitments under this deal“, he said.

In defense of Obama’s approach, the deal’s supporters point out that the Iranians are a “proud, nationalistic people“, which is undoubtedly true, but irrelevant, just as it was for the leadership of Germany’s Third Reich.

“His message is that this is important, that if we want to avert a nuclear bomb in Iranian hands, we have to vote yes for this, there’s no other way”.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-New York, met with members of a pro-Israel lobby Wednesday morning and then went to the White House to meet one-on-one with the president. “It is not shared with the world, but we do get briefed on it”.

“After eight years, under this agreement, the Iranians will be able to begin building and stockpiling more than 200 advanced centrifuges a year”, Hatch said, also noting that the embargo on ballistic missiles would be lifted under the terms of the agreement.

“Spending time with individual members of Congress and answering their questions directly, again, I think is an indication that the president feels a personal responsibility to engage with members of Congress who are keeping an open mind”, he said.

Asked how confident he was that the administration would have the votes to uphold a presidential veto, Lew said he believed there would be sufficient support, “enough for this to be sustained” if Congress does reject the agreement and Obama vetoes the resolution.

Committe chairman, Sen. John McCain, repeatedly asked the quartet of representatives whether Congress would be aware of those protocols as Iran has “a clear record of cheating”.

“That is absolutely astounding”, McCain said.

“It places no limits on our forces, our partnerships and alliances, our intensive and ongoing security cooperation, or on our development and fielding of new military capabilities – capabilities we will continue to advance”, he told the panel.

“According to the IAEA rules and practices such documents could be made available to the Members of the IAEA Board”, Olli Heinonen, a senior fellow at Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and global Affairs and the IAEA’s former Deputy Director-General for Safeguards, wrote to Business Insider in an email.

Less than a day after indicating in a Senate hearing that the Iran nuclear deal would have the US defend Iran from Israel, Secretary of State John Kerry warned Israel last Friday that a unilateral strike on Iran’s covert nuclear program would be a “huge mistake”.