Senate Democrats rallied behind President Obama’s plan to lift sanctions on Iran in return for its promises to slow down its nuclear program. Enough senators supported the agreement to sustain a presidential veto against Congressional attempts to stop it.
UPDATE: You have got to read Charles Krauthammer’s account of what just happened. President Obama packaged the deal so that it isn’t considered a treaty (even though it is one), which would require a two-thirds vote of the Senate. “To get around the Constitution, Obama negotiated a swindle that requires him to garner a mere one-third of one house of Congress.” And, as if that wasn’t enough, he got the deal approved by the UN, making it international law, even before Congress approved it!
Now Iran will immediately get $100 billion from their blocked accounts and full access to the oil market and foreign investment. Since their nuclear program is legally branded as “peaceful,” the West, according to the terms of the agreement, must give Iran aid in developing it and must defend it against cyberattacks from Israel, which the leadership of Iran is bragging won’t be around in 25 years!
From Iran nuclear deal survives: Democrats block disapproval vote:
Senate Democrats voted to uphold the hard-fought nuclear accord with Iran on Thursday, overcoming ferocious GOP opposition and delivering President Barack Obama a legacy-making victory on his top foreign policy priority.
A disapproval resolution for the agreement fell two votes short of the 60 needed to move forward as Democratic and independent senators banded together against it. Although House Republicans continued to pursue eleventh-hour strategies to derail the international accord, the outcome in the Senate guaranteed that the disapproval legislation would not reach Obama’s desk.
As a result the nuclear deal will move forward unchecked by Congress, an improbable win by Obama in the face of unanimous opposition from Republicans who control Capitol Hill, GOP candidates seeking to replace him in the Oval Office and the state of Israel and its allied lobbyists in the U.S.
Beginning next week, Obama will be free to start scaling back U.S. sanctions to implement the agreement negotiated by Iran, the U.S. and five other world powers. The accord aims to constrain Iran’s nuclear ambitions in exchange for hundreds of billions of dollars in relief from international sanctions.
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