WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats on Tuesday put the brakes on new Iran sanctions legislation, ending for now a looming showdown between Congress and President Barack Obama over negotiations to prevent Tehran from having the capability to make a nuclear weapon.
Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., a leading proponent of the legislation, says he remains skeptical a deal will materialize, but says he and nine other Democrats now won’t push the bill at least until the end of March. Menendez’ concession to the White House is good news for Obama, who has threatened to veto any new sanctions legislation.
Republicans could still move ahead on the bill, but without Democratic support, Congress would not have the votes needed to override an Obama veto.
The White House, British Prime Minister David Cameron and other international leaders have been lobbying U.S. lawmakers hard, arguing that if new sanctions legislation were passed, Iran could walk away from the talks and say the U.S. was negotiating in bad faith and scuttled the discussions. Obama said the willingness of America’s international partners to enforce existing sanctions against Iran also would wane.
Last week, House Speaker John Boehner fueled the rising friction with the White House by announcing that he had invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a staunch opponent of Iran, to stand before Congress March 3 and push for new sanctions. The announcement caught the administration off-guard and Obama says he will not be meeting with Netanyahu when he visits Washington.
Time could be running out to reach a deal with Iran, which says its nuclear program is peaceful and exists only to produce energy for civilian use. Talks have been extended until July, with the goal of reaching a framework for a deal by the end of March.
Menendez, who drafted bipartisan legislation with Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., said at a Senate Banking Committee hearing that he and many of his Democratic colleagues had sent a letter to Obama saying they won’t support passage of the bill until after March 24 — the date when a framework for a final deal is to be done.
“The legislation that Sen. Kirk and I have drafted would signal to the Iranian regime that there will be more consequences if they choose not to reach a final deal,” Menendez said. “This morning, however, many of my Democratic colleagues and I sent a letter to the president, telling him that we will not support passage of the Kirk-Menendez bill on the Senate floor until after March 24 and only if there is no political framework agreement because, as the letter states, we remain hopeful that diplomacy will succeed in reversing Iran’s ability to develop a nuclear weapon capability.”
The letter was signed by Sens. Chuck Schumer of New York — the third-ranking Democrat in the Senate — Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Gary Peters and Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, Ben Cardin of Maryland, Chris Coons of Delaware, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Joe Donnelly of Indiana.
Menendez made it clear that he and his Democratic colleagues are not willing to hold off support for the bill forever.
He says he remains deeply skeptical that Iran is committed to making the concessions necessary to demonstrate to the world that its nuclear program is exclusively peaceful by March 24.
“In my view, we need Iran to understand that there are consequences if they fail to reach a comprehensive agreement. … At the end of the day, Iran must make up its mind about what is more important — its nuclear weapons program or the welfare of its people,” Menendez said.
The Kirk-Menendez bill, which has not been formally introduced, would not impose any new sanctions during the remaining timeline for negotiations. A draft of the bill says that if there is no deal by July 6, the sanctions that were eased during negotiations would be reinstated. After that, sanctions would be stepped up every month.
On Aug. 3, new sanctions would take effect on Iran’s petroleum industry, followed on Sept. 7 by new restraints on nations that import Iranian oil. On Oct. 5, the U.S. would slap travel and financial sanctions against more Iranian officials. On Nov. 2, new sanctions would be levied on foreign banks that do transactions with Iran’s central bank. And then on Dec. 7, the U.S. would impose more sanctions targeting energy, shipping, shipbuilding, auto, mining and other strategic industrial sectors in Iran.
Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, the ranking Democrat on the committee, expressed concern that new sanctions legislation was being “hustled through” the committee without adequate review. He said the committee should delay a markup of the bill, which is scheduled for Thursday.
Some Republicans on the committee still want the sanctions legislation to move forward.
“I think Congress should act now, pass a strong sanctions bill that would go into effect prospectively and conditionally,” said Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa.
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