Top Iraqi officials on Wednesday deepened their efforts to stem the damage from a recently published Reuters report revealing that Baghdad had inked a weapons deal with Iran worth $195 million, breaking a U.N.-imposed arms embargo on the Islamic republic and fueling concerns that the Obama administration had allowed Iraq to slip into the Iranian orbit. Baghdad – facing what the Daily Star described as “heavy pressure from the United States” – had quickly denied that a deal had ever been signed. Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari on Wednesday doubled down on the denial, flatly stating that “no agreement has been made for purchasing weapons from Iran.”

The protestations come amid legislative moves in Washington in response to news of the arms deals. Reuters conveyed statements from multiple lawmakers and Congressional aides noting that Congress had not been informed by the Obama administration of the Iraq-Iran agreement. On Tuesday, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) insisted that the U.S. must reconsider a coalescing agreement to sell 24 Apache helicopters to Baghdad.

“The Apache sale has got to be on the table. We’ve got to discuss it,” the Republican Arizona senator said when asked about whether the arms sale would affect the plan to sell the Boeing Co. helicopters to Iraq. “We’ve got to understand the ramifications of this arms deal. We have to look at it a little more carefully,” he said.

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