Iran agreement win for international diplomacy: Analyst
Press TV has interviewed Jeffery Steinberg, with the Executive Intelligence Review, in Leesburg, to discuss efforts by US President Barack Obama to prevent Republican-dominated Congress from torpedoing the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action reached between Iran and the P5+1 nations over nuclear issues.
Following is a rough transcription.
Press TV: Now that Obama has been able to garner enough votes, wouldn’t that make a Republican rejection of the deal a useless effort?
Steinberg: This situation has been pretty much set in stone almost since the very outset. In all likelihood, the debates that will start next week in both houses of Congress, will lead to at least a vote in the house after a very intensive debate and there is a very good chance that the P5+1 agreement will be rejected in both houses of Congress by a simple majority but Mr. president will veto it and then he will only need one-third of the house or one-third of the Senate to pass by having the veto sustained.
So 34 members, all Democrats, in the house are pledged to support the treaty agreement which means that it will be legally binding but the level of political opposition and the amount of noise that is being made, particularly by people who are on the payroll of the Israel lobby will be used to try to minimize the significance of the victory. But at the end of the day it will be ratified, it will go into force, the sanctions will be lifted including US sanctions and so we are going to move on from here.
A few weeks or a few months from now most of this noise, and sound and shrill will be forgotten. So it is a significant victory. It is not so much a victory for Obama as it is a victory for the kind of international diplomacy that really set the very high standard for how we can approach almost every international crisis.
Press TV: How likely would the next US president move to annul this Iran deal?
Steinberg: Very unlikely. The Republicans hate Obamacare. They tried repeatedly to annul it and it has become an exercise in political futility and impedance. Once sanctions are lifted, it is very difficult to reinstate them unless something really egregious happens and I don’t expect that from Iran.
The American people are fed up with the fact that these kinds of sanctions have probably done as much economic damage, if not more, to the United States than even to Iran. So I think that we are on a trend line where this deal will hold, and there will be a lot of noise, anger and frustration but barring some very unforeseen situation developing, this is a done deal and I think it is good and the people who keep complaining about it are going to look more and more impudent and childish as time goes on.
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