Iran will be ‘defining issue’ in 2016 election: US Senate majority leader
US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says that the recent developments concerning Iran’s nuclear program will make Tehran a “defining issue” in the US presidential election next year.
Speaking to CNN on Friday, McConnell made it clear that despite approval of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Republicans still firmly oppose the Iran deal and are mulling new measures to prevent it from getting finalized.
He said that he would mount a second vote to turn down the agreement next week and if that attempt also fails, then “this vote stands” and Iran becomes “a defining issue” in the 2016 election.
The Republican senator referred to the agreement as a “unilateral deal” that President Barack Obama “can try to implement over the next year and a half.”
In addition to McConnell, Republican House Speaker John Boehner had also said earlier that all options were on the table to prevent Obama from finalizing the Iran nuclear agreement, including the threat of taking legal action against him.
Meanwhile, analysts believe that the Republicans, along with other major opponents of the deal namely the AIPAC, have failed to stop the historic agreement, and their influence on American lawmakers is decreasing.
In an interview with Press TV on Thursday, E. Michael Jones, former professor and editor of Culture Wars magazine, said that attempts such as holding a secondary vote or suing Obama are “all just hollow posturing on the part of the Republicans for money from the Israel lobby primarily, but also trying to create some type of issue for the upcoming presidential election.”
Republican senators fell two votes short on Thursday of the 60 needed in the 100-member chamber to advance a resolution disapproving of the JCPOA, which was reached between Iran and the P5+1 group of nations- the US, Russia, China, the UK, France and Germany- back in July.
This means the legislation aimed at derailing the agreement is essentially dead, and that the JCPOA will now take effect and a veto showdown between the Republican-dominated Congress and the Obama administration is not necessary.
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