US Senator Warner supports Iran nuclear agreement -White House

Netanyahu made the remarks at an event ahead of the Jewish New Year held at the Foreign Ministry, one day after U.S. President Barack Obama secured enough Democratic senators’ votes to block a Republican initiative to foil the deal.

Iran’s Supreme Leader said on Thursday he favoured a parliamentary vote on its nuclear deal reached with world powers and called for sanctions against Tehran to be lifted completely rather than suspended, state television reported.

“The whole deal depends on Iran, a country that has never shown any interest in adhering to global norms and obligations, suddenly cooperating with the terms of this nuclear weapons agreement”, he said.

About 60 percent of Republicans oppose the deal.

If the U.S. Senate votes to reject this deal, then Iran will have no restraints whatsoever to accelerating nuclear bomb development. The fact that an Obama veto can no longer be overturned frees up several Congressional Democrats to oppose the deal for purely political reasons, as their opposition will not impact the deal.

In a press release sent Friday afternoon, Bennet said after careful consideration he determined this deal is better than the alternative.

They brought the list of senators supporting the deal to 37, all Democrats or independents who caucus with them.

There was no immediate response from Obama about the vote that sealed the deal, but Secretary of State John Kerry, during a speech in Philadelphia Wednesday, strongly supported the accord. “It is far more likely that trust in the ability of the United States to lead would evaporate and worldwide support for sanctions would plummet”, he said.

The agreement is expected to be submitted to Congress before September 17.

The Senate and House of Representatives will start voting on the issue as soon as next week. He had been seen as a potential deal opponent, given the Israeli government’s strong opposition.

Last Tuesday, Sen. Bob Casey became the 32nd senator to announce his support of the accord with Iran.

Having 34 backers means that “when the President vetoes the resolution, there are not enough senators to override the veto”, said Professor Bruce Jentleson from the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University.

The issue has also begun to play a role in the 2016 USA presidential election. It takes time for sanctions to kick in and once they are off and people start doing business and companies are in Iran, it will be much more hard to get support for effective sanctions.

“I think the drama will be bigger in my country than in yours”, Ali Larijani said, referring to the debate among both USA and Iranian lawmakers.