WASHINGTON - A bipartisan group of senators formally urged the Obama administration on Tuesday to reject any deal with Iran that did not include a tangible rollback of Tehran’s nuclear program, as lines hardened ahead of a new round of nuclear talks scheduled for this week in Geneva.
The letter was released just hours after a meeting at the White House at which President Barack Obama pleaded personally with senior senators to give Secretary of State John Kerry and his negotiating team time to reach an accord before moving forward with legislation imposing a tough new round of sanctions on Iran.
In their letter, the senators said they would not seek to amend a military policy bill now under consideration in the Senate with any provision adding sanctions. But their letter made it clear that opposition was forming to any deal that would loosen some economic sanctions on Iran in exchange for a temporary freeze on the nuclear program.
“It is our belief that any interim agreement with the Iranians should bring us closer to our ultimate goal, which is Iran without a nuclear weapons capability,” the senators wrote. “We must ensure that the steps we take in the coming weeks and months move us towards a resolution that ultimately brings Iran in compliance with all relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions, seeks to prevent Tehran from possessing any enrichment or reprocessing capability, and resolves any and all fears that Iran will develop a nuclear weapons capability.”
The signers included Charles E. Schumer of New York, the third-ranking Democrat; Robert Menendez of New Jersey, a Democrat who is the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.; John McCain, R-Ariz.; Bob Casey, D-Pa.; and Susan Collins, R-Maine.
The ranking Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, said after the two-hour White House meeting that he remained deeply skeptical of any interim deal with Iran, despite Obama’s plea to give diplomacy a chance.
“There’s concern that we’re giving up some leverage,” said Corker, who likened a deal to previous agreements with North Korea in which Pyongyang was granted relief from sanctions but later reneged on promises to curb its nuclear program.
Obama’s meeting with leaders of the Senate’s top foreign policy and national security committees was his most direct lobbying effort on behalf of his efforts to seal a preliminary deal with Iran. Those efforts have met fierce opposition from Israel, from allies in the Persian Gulf and from Republicans and some Democrats in Congress who have sought to impose a new round of sanctions on the Tehran government.
