US Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said on Sunday that President Barack Obama was on the verge of making a “very bad deal” on Iran’s nuclear programme and made clear that Congress will weigh
US Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said on Sunday that President Barack Obama was on the verge of making a “very bad deal” on Iran’s nuclear programme and made clear that Congress will weigh in on any agreement. “Apparently the administration is on the cusp of entering into a very bad deal with one of the worst regimes in the world that would allow them to continue to have their nuclear infrastructure,” Mr McConnell said on CNN’s State of the Union programme. “We’re alarmed about it.”
US secretary of state John Kerry was resuming negotiations with the Iranians in Lausanne, Switzerland, on Sunday with the goal of reaching a framework agreement by the end of March and a final accord by June 30. Mr Kerry said on Saturday he hoped “in the next days” it would be possible to reach an interim deal.
Mr Kerry, returning to talks with Iran on its nuclear programme, on Sunday, however, said that most of the differences still barring an agreement are political rather than technical. Mr Kerry, who was to sit down later Sunday in Switzerland with Iranian foreign minister Mohammed Javad Zarif, said “there are clearly some differences that still rest on a technical judgment.” “But by and large, most of the differences now are political decisions that need to be made in order to fulfil the promise of proving to the world that a programme is peaceful,” he added.
Mr Kerry said in an interview on CBS News that Tehran “to its credit has thus far lived up to every part of the agreement we made over a year ago.” His interview was aired a day after White House chief of staff Denis McDonough sent a letter to Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Bob Corker warning Congress once more that it should not interfere in the negotiating process.
As negotiations between world powers and Iran intensified this month, opposition to the agreement in the works erupted in the US Congress. An open letter sent last week to Iran’s leaders from 47 Republicans in the 100-member Senate warned that any nuclear deal reached with Mr Obama may be undone after he leaves office in 2017.
The letter was denounced by the White House and the state department as interference into international negotiations.
On Saturday, the White House warned Republican senators that proposed legislation requiring Congress to approve any accord reached with Iran over its nuclear capabilities could have a “profoundly negative impact” on negotiations.
Mr McConnell said the Democratic president “clearly doesn’t want Congress involved in it — at all. And we’re worried about it.” Washington wants Iran to scale down its nuclear programme in order to extend to at least a year the “breakout” time that Iran would in theory need to produce a bomb’s worth of fissile material. Iran denies wanting nuclear weapons.
