Diplomacy

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With President’s Claims of Iran Progress Called into Question, Senate Seeks New Leverage

by TheTower.org Staff |

As doubts continue to grow about the administration’s claims made of progress in the nuclear negotiations, including those made by President Barack Obama in Tuesday’s State of the Union address, senators from both parties are seeking to introduce legislation to restore the West’s leverage in those negotiations.

In his State of the Union speech, President Obama said that “we’ve halted the progress of its nuclear program.” However, experts say that many elements of the Iranian nuclear program have not been halted. The Joint Plan of Action (JPOA) allows Iran to continue to enrich uranium to 3.5% and according to the Institute for Science and International Security, Iran has enriched enough uranium for at least one bomb in the last year. Also the JPOA did not halt  Iran’s ballistic missile development, and the Associated Press reports that Iran has continued construction for the Arak reactor which Iran claims is now 87% complete. President Hassan Rouhani also recently announced that Iran will build two new reactors.

Following the State of the Union speech, expressing the bipartisan skepticism of the administration’s claims of successs in the negotiations with Iran, Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Robert Menendez (D -N.J.) said during a committee hearing yesterday that “the more I hear from the administration in its quotes, the more it sounds like talking points that come straight out of Tehran.”

To restore the P5+1’s leverage, Senators Mark Kirk (R – Ill.) and Menendez are co-sponsoring the Nuclear Weapon Free Iran Act of 2015, which would ensure that Iran agrees to a “a long-term comprehensive solution” that would ensure that “Iran is precluded from a
nuclear breakout capability and prevented from pursuing both uranium and plutonium pathways to a nuclear weapon.”

During the Senate hearing, Senator Menendez claimed that “breakout time is shorter than the amount of time it would take to make new sanctions.” Additionally, Senator Bob Corker (R –Tenn.) stated that he wants to pursue legislation that would allow Congress to weigh in on any potential deal with Iran. However, at the Senate hearing, Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated that the administration opposes a congressional up-or-down vote on a nuclear deal.

[Photo: The New York Times / YouTube ]

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