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Corker working overtime to get veto-proof majority to ensure Congress review of Iran deal

Iran Press TV

Mon Apr 6, 2015 12:40AM

The chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee says he is within a few votes of being able to override a presidential veto of his legislation that would prevent the Obama administration from lifting sanctions against Iran until Congress reviews a nuclear deal.

Tennessee Republican Senator Bob Corker told Fox News on Sunday that the GOP-dominated Senate is only two or three votes short of the two-thirds votes required to override Obama's potential veto.

Corker said he was working overtime to reach the veto-proof majority, talking to Democratic holdouts to get their votes.

On Thursday, the P5+1 group – the US, Britain, France, China, Russia and Germany – reached an outline of a potentially historic agreement with Iran over Tehran's civilian nuclear work that would lift all international sanctions imposed against the Islamic Republic in exchange for certain steps Tehran will take with regard to its nuclear program.

President Barack Obama has hailed the 'historic understanding' with Iran, saying that it paves the way for a final agreement in three months.

But, several Republicans have slammed the nuclear understanding, saying lifting sanctions on Iran would provoke Israel into an armed conflict with Tehran.

Republicans have warned the White House not to bypass Congress by taking the final Iran agreement straight to the United Nations, insisting that lawmakers should have a final say on the deal to ensure Americans that the president is not negotiating a bad deal.

"The American people want to know somebody is teasing out the information" about the agreement, Corker said. "Congress has to be involved in this way."

In an interview with Press TV on Saturday, American political analyst and activist Charles Coburn said Republicans have made Iran nuclear talks such a partisan issue that they will not get enough votes in the US Senate to overturn the threatened veto.

He said "because this has become such a partisan issue, with inviting Bibi Netanyahu, here, and Senator Tom Cotton and the 47 traitors sending a letter to Iran, that any hope that they may have had of… Senate Democrats supporting legislation, which would be ultimately vetoed, supporting legislation with enough Democrat votes to override a veto have passed."

GJH/GJH