Iran nuclear deal survives as Democrats block disapproval vote in Senate

President Barack Obama effectively secured the most significant foreign policy achievement of his two terms in office on Thursday when Senate opponents failed to derail the Iran nuclear deal.

A disapproval resolution for the agreement fell two votes short of the 60 needed to move forward as most Democratic and independent senators banded together against it.

The 60 votes would have been needed to curb debate on the measure that sought to kill the deal by barring the United States from lifting nuclear-related sanctions on Iran. In the 58-42 procedural vote, four Democrats joined 54 Republicans in the attempt to shut off debate.

“This vote is a victory for diplomacy, for American national security, and for the safety and security of the world,” Obama declared in a statement issued minutes after the vote. “I am heartened that so many senators judged this deal on the merits, and am gratified by the strong support of lawmakers and citizens alike.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, vowed to persevere with efforts to derail the deal, announcing that he would schedule another attempt to curb debate on the resolution of disapproval next week and move it to a final vote, although he’s not likely to succeed.

“Democratic senators just voted to filibuster and block the American people from even having a real vote on one of the most consequential foreign policy issues of our age,” McConnell asserted after Thursday’s vote. “This deal is sure to have many consequences that will last well beyond this administration, and yet, as things presently stand, it would limp along with little or no buy-in or input from Congress or the people.

Among those voting yes to move ahead on the resolution were Republicans Roy Blunt of Missouri and Jerry Moran and Pat Roberts of Kansas. Among those voting no was Claire McCaskill of Missouri.

On Thursday, senators came to the chamber floor to defend or excoriate the deal, evoking everything from Nazis to fissile material to the Syrian refugee crisis.

Some said that the deal was the best that the United States and its negotiating partners could achieve.

“This agreement is flawed,” said Sen. Angus King, a Maine independent. “But this is the agreement that is before us, and the analysis cannot be strictly of the agreement itself within its four corners, but compared to what? That really is the basic question here.”

Frustrated Republicans railed against Democrats for using a procedural vote to block final passage of the disapproval resolution and issued grim warnings about a deal that they contend could serve only to enrich Tehran and leave it closer to building a bomb when constraints begin to ease in 10 or 15 years.

“I’ve never been more disappointed in the body than I am today,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican who has long protested the deal. “You won’t let us have a vote. You won’t let us have a debate.”

McConnell’s maneuvering and similar efforts in the House to derail the deal, including a possible lawsuit by hardline conservatives, have virtually no chance of succeeding, but the continued opposition appeared designed to keep the deal a high-visibility issue during the presidential election campaign.

All 17 Republican candidates oppose the accord, while the leading Democratic hopefuls, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, support it.

Reached on July 14 after two years of talks between Iran on one side and the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany on the other, the deal is intended to prevent Tehran from developing nuclear weapons. It would impose strict limits on Iran’s capacity to produce enriched uranium and plutonium and subject Iranian nuclear facilities to unprecedented international inspections. In return, Iran will be relieved of economic sanctions that have devastated its economy.

Opponents, led by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in unprecedented interference by a foreign leader in a U.S. political dispute, charge that the deal is seriously flawed. They contend that it will allow Iran to secretly develop a nuclear arsenal that it will use to target Israel and expand its regional power.

The lifting of sanctions, they add, will bring Tehran a financial windfall that it will use to fund violent proxies in the war-racked Middle East.

Under a compromise agreement with the White House, Congress was given 60 days after submission of the deal to review it. That period ends Sept. 17.

But under the compromise, Congress was not asked to approve the deal, only to disapprove it, an action that Obama could veto to keep the Iran deal alive. Congressional opponents would then have had to muster a two-thirds vote in both the Senate and the House to overturn the veto.

As it turned out, the veto almost certainly won’t be needed. Although majorities in the Republican-controlled Senate and the House supported the measure, McConnell needed 60 members to support limiting debate so the measure itself could be voted on.

The failure to muster those votes came in spite of an intense multimillion-dollar lobbying campaign against the deal.

After the vote, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, said he was “gratified” by the outcome. He warned Republicans against continuing their efforts to scuttle the nuclear agreement.

“Efforts by opponents to derail this agreement were soundly rejected,” Reid said. “Any future attempts . . . by Senator McConnell to relitigate this issue are just simply a waste of time and will meet the same outcome as this.”

As Senate Republicans tried to move their disapproval resolution forward, the House pursued a separate path, where a resolution passed by a party line vote of 245-186 declared that the 60-day congressional review period hadn’t started because Obama hasn’t provided lawmakers with all documents relating to the deal.

Opponents have been demanding that Congress be given two so-called side agreements between Iran and the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, outlining how they will clear up allegations that Tehran researched a nuclear warhead until late 2003.

Although the administration contends that it knows the details of the side agreements, it says that it cannot obtain them because the International Atomic Energy Agency keeps such bilateral arrangements confidential in order to preserve agency’s independence and integrity.

Some conservatives have floated the idea of trying to stop the deal through a lawsuit that would charge that because the side deals weren’t provided, Obama had violated the law that established the 60-day review. Some House Republicans were buoyed by a favorable ruling this week in a lawsuit they filed over Obama’s health care law.

House Speaker John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, called the lawsuit idea on the Iran deal “an option that is very possible.”

House Republicans also are expected to hold a vote Friday — the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks — on a measure to approve the deal, knowing that they will easily defeat it.

“This debate is far from over and, frankly, it’s just beginning,” Boehner said. He added: “We will use every tool at our disposal to stop, slow and delay this agreement from being fully implemented.”

Steps ahead

What happens next?

The agreement is to be formally adopted on Oct. 19 — 90 days after it was endorsed by the U.N. Security Council. That is the day when Iran and the six world powers that concluded the accord are to start taking steps to comply, although most of the early burden falls on Iran.

When does the agreement actually take effect?

That does not happen until “implementation day.” Nobody knows for sure when that may be.

What does Iran need to do before the accord goes into effect?

Among other things, Iran must reduce its large stockpile of low enriched uranium to no more than 660 pounds from roughly 12 tons today — a 98 percent reduction. To do so, it will almost certainly have to ship fuel out of the country. It must also disassemble and store more than 13,000 centrifuges — it is only allowed to have 5,060 spinning — and convert the underground Fordo nuclear enrichment site to a research-and-development installation. Iran must also remove and disable the core of its heavy water reactor at Arak so it cannot produce plutonium, another pathway to a bomb. It must also make arrangements for inspections and monitoring by the International Atomic Energy Agency and begin answering questions about suspected military-related work on nuclear weapons.

What steps do the U.S. and its partners need to take?

The U.S. will waive many of its nuclear-related sanctions blocking business with Iran, starting on implementation day. The European Union will terminate many of its sanctions on that day as well. Also, Iran will be granted access to its frozen assets abroad, mostly money from oil sales.

This story was originally published September 10, 2015 at 9:42 PM with the headline "Iran nuclear deal survives as Democrats block disapproval vote in Senate."