US Senate to vote on anti-Iran bill Tuesday
The US Senate majority leader has announced that the upper chamber will hold a procedural vote next week on a bill that would prevent President Barack Obama from removing sanctions on Iran until Congress reviews a nuclear deal.
Despite a veto threat from Obama, Mitch McConnell submitted cloture - a procedure for ending a debate and taking a vote - on the legislation Wednesday, which would prompt a procedural vote an hour after the Senate holds a session on Tuesday.
“There is nothing partisan about the Senate acting to fulfill its constitutional role,” said McConnell, a Republican senator from Kentucky, responding to the Democratic criticism. “I was surprised that some senators made statements objecting to their own legislation. ... This isn't complicated.”
Last week, a group of hawkish senators introduced a bill requiring Obama to submit the text of any nuclear deal with Iran to Congress for review. The legislation would also ban the White House from lifting any sanctions for a period of 60 days so that Congress could hold hearings and debate the deal.
Several senators have announced they would not support the legislation if it is taken up before the end of March and does not go through the Foreign Relations Committee.
Obama has threatened to veto the bill.
"The president has been clear that now is not the time for Congress to pass additional legislation on Iran," US National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said Saturday.
"If this bill is sent to the president, he will veto it. We are in the final weeks of an international negotiation. We should give our negotiators the best chance of success, rather than complicating their efforts," she added.
Iran and the P5+1 group of states – the United States, Britain, France, China, Russia, and Germany – are holding negotiations to narrow their differences on outstanding issues related to Tehran's nuclear program ahead of a July 1 deadline for the final agreement.
On Wednesday, US Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif wrapped up a third day of “intense” negotiations in the Swiss city of Montreux.
"We've made some progress from where we were and important choices need to be made," Kerry said after the talks.
GJH/HRJ
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