Ten Senate Democrats have given President Obama two months to prove he can drive a hard bargain with Iran and avoid a humiliating override of his threatened veto of new sanctions.
The senators, led by Bob Menendez of New Jersey, co-author of the sanctions bill with Republican Mark Kirk of Illinois, effectively gave Obama until March 24 to get Iran to agree to limits on its nuclear program that are at least as strong as the minimum he has said his administration will accept.
In a letter to Obama sent Tuesday, the 10 lawmakers agreed to put their support for the bill on hold, while noting that there were limits to their trust of the administration’s negotiating strategy.
“We remain deeply skeptical that Iran is committed to making the concessions required to demonstrate to the world that its nuclear program is exclusively peaceful by March 24 — the deadline agreed upon for a political framework agreement,” they wrote. “Considering Iran’s history in nuclear negotiations and after two extensions of the Joint Plan of Action, we are concerned that Iran is intentionally extending the negotiations to improve its leverage at the negotiating table.”
The move was widely seen as a victory for Obama, who had threatened on Jan. 16 to veto any new sanctions legislation. His administration has consistently refused to negotiate with lawmakers on the issue, insisting that any move toward new sanctions would blow up the talks and make it more likely that Iran could obtain a nuclear weapon.
But the lawmakers behind the delay see it as a test of the administration’s resolve as the talks drag on without a permanent deal to replace a November 2013 interim agreement that was supposed to last only six months. Negotiators from the “P5+1” group — the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China — hope to have a political framework for a permanent deal in place by the March deadline so details can be worked out before the latest extension of the interim agreement runs out June 30.
“The fact is that negotiators are now in their 18th month of talking,” Menendez said. “Iran is procrastinating because the longer the negotiations last, the further the P5+1 move in their direction.”
He and Kirk introduced their bill late Tuesday, with 14 co-sponsors, including seven of the 10 Democrats who signed the letter to Obama, and it’s likely to get bipartisan support when the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee marks it up on Thursday.
One of the signers of Monday’s letter, Chuck Schumer of New York, said he expects to vote for it “so a bill would be ready to go” if Iran proves unwilling to deal, citing the “almost irrefutable logic” of the usefulness of new sanctions to prod Iran toward an agreement.
Republican supporters of sanctions appeared at least willing to accept the delay in a final vote. “I think we’re all searching for the right way for the Senate and the Congress to weigh in,” said Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, of which Menendez is the ranking Democrat.
Meanwhile, administration officials — who have been promising for more than a year that they would support new sanctions if Iran proved not to be negotiating in good faith — seem willing to tolerate just about anything, even cheating, to keep Tehran from walking away from the table. This has helped build bipartisan support for sanctions in Congress, even among Democrats who had been skeptical in previous years.
According to a draft of the bill, if no final agreement is reached by the June 30 deadline, sanctions that had been waived as part of the interim deal would be reinstated on July 6 and additional sanctions would be imposed, starting with tighter restrictions on Iran’s access to markets for its oil, though Obama would have the power to waive those in the national interest.
The legislation would bar any new waivers of sanctions until Congress has the chance to review any final deal for 30 legislative days — about two to three months in real time.
The Senate has been the sticking point for efforts to impose new sanctions. Legislation passed the Republican-controlled House in 2013 with overwhelming bipartisan support, and support there for the idea remains strong.
