White House rallies Democrats' support for Iran agreement
The White House has launched efforts to rally support of skeptical Democratic lawmakers for the nuclear conclusion reached between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries.
On Thursday, Vice President Joe Biden will travel to the US Capitol for the second day in a row to meet Democrats in the Senate, as the Congress is set to review the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) reached in Vienna this week.
Biden will hold meetings with Democratic members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, according to a White House statement issued on Wednesday.
Biden met with Democrats in the House of Representatives on Wednesday to get their support for the agreement.
After 18 days of talks in the Austrian capital on Tuesday, Iran and the P5+1 – the United States, Britain, France, China, Russia and Germany – announced that they agreed on a text of the JCPOA, which will put limits on Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for the removal of sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
The 159-page JCPOA document has been presented to the Republican-controlled Congress, which now has up to 60 days to review the text and vote to either approve or disapprove of it.
President Barack Obama said on Tuesday that he would veto any legislation from lawmakers that "prevents the successful implementation of the deal."
Most Republicans oppose the nuclear agreement with Iran, but they need a two-thirds vote in both chambers of Congress to override a possible presidential veto, and to reach that threshold, Republicans need Democratic support.
Some Senate Democrats on the Foreign Relations Committee are also skeptical of the outcome of nuclear talks with Iran and have expressed concerns about it.
Senator Ben Cardin, the committee's high-ranking Democrat, said on Tuesday that members have several concerns they want addressed.
"There are questions that we're going to want to get answers to on the timing issues and how the process works," he said. "So there's a lot of questions."
The White House is banking on Biden’s lobbying skills and on his long tenure in the Senate to win over the skeptical Democrats.
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