GOP faces hurdles in blocking a Biden Iran deal

Dado Ruvic/Illustration

GOP faces hurdles in blocking a Biden Iran deal

THE HILS.BY JORDAIN CARNEY AND LAURA KELLY – 02/13/22

Dozens of Senate Republicans are threatening to hamper, if not scuttle, any new agreement if President Biden doesn’t submit it to Congress, a move that would also spark an intense brawl that would allow GOP lawmakers to force a vote on formally disavowing a deal.

But Democrats are confident they could defeat a formal resolution disapproving an agreement, if the administration sends it to Congress, and say that Republican efforts to attack an agreement in other ways, like trying to cut off funding, couldn’t make it past a Democratic-controlled Congress or Biden’s veto pen.

“I don’t know how they could,” Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) told The Hill about GOP efforts to block an agreement. “I think if we were to find a deal, you would likely see it survive.”

The prospect of another congressional fight comes as the administration is reaching a critical point in its diplomacy with Tehran to either revive the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) or abandon the talks if an agreement on a mutual return to compliance is not reached.

The Obama administration struck an international deal with Iran in 2015 that lifted sanctions in return for limits placed on Iran’s nuclear program coupled with inspections. The Trump administration took the United States out of the agreement in 2018, doubling down on a sanctions regime targeting Iran’s nuclear activity, its military and human rights abuses.

Republicans are deeply skeptical of the Biden administration’s negotiations with Tehran, which has amped up its nuclear program, expanded its missile arsenals and supported terrorist proxies and their attacks in the Middle East.

“The Biden administration’s prepared to surrender everything,” said Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas). “They desperately want a deal, and I don’t think there’s anything they’re unwilling to give to get a deal.”

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https://thehill.com/policy/international/593946-gop-faces-hurdles-in-blocking-a-biden-iran-deal