Reaction worldwide to the
nuclear agreement reached Tuesday with Iran is just what Sen. Bob Corker said he expected: There's great uncertainty all around, especially from Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu, who denounced the agreement both in Farsi and English.
"When you have [Russian leader] Vladimir Putin and the leader of Iran spiking the ball over what happened, you can imagine that would be the reaction from Benjamin Netanyahu," said Corker, the Tennessee Republican and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on
Fox News' "America's Newsroom" program.
Once all documents are received, Congress will have 60 days for the initial review. Twelve additional days will be provided if the House and Senate send a joint resolution to the president, and 10 more days are allowed for Congress to override a presidential veto.
"If you remember, Congress had no role in this," Corker said. "The president made it clear he was going straight to the U.N. Council and not allow Congress to have any review process, because of legislation he said he was going to veto until he saw it would pass."
Corker said he has no doubt Obama will try to veto the agreement if Congress decides that is not in the best interest of the United States or its allies.
"This is the role Congress is supposed to play," said Corker. "I am glad we have injected ourselves in the process and we will have the opportunity to go through it."
It will take a two-thirds majority, or 67 votes in the Senate, to override Obama's veto, and Corker said he does not want to "prejudge" how Congress might act.
"I don't want to prejudge and say what direction we will embark on at this point," said Corker. "The first position is to get the document and go through it. The early indications may be unsure, but our role is to go through this. It is likely a vote will not take place on this until early September."
But Corker said he is concerned as he reads comments from Putin and other world leaders following the agreement.
It is "hard to understand," he said, how "a rogue nation like Iran" that had "a boot on its neck two years ago, was able to go from having its nuclear program dismantled to getting the gains it has gotten from six countries."
In a
statement early Tuesday, Corker said he has continued to express concerns to the Obama administration "about the crossing of red line after red line as we have moved from a goal of dismantling Iran’s nuclear capabilities to managing its proliferation."
He said he still needs to read and understand the agreement, but he begins "from a place of deep skepticism that the deal actually meets the goal of preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon."
In upcoming days, said Corker, Congress will need to decide "whether implementing the agreement is worth dismantling our painstakingly constructed sanctions regime that took more than a decade to establish."
Iran is still "the lead sponsor of terrorism in the world," said Corker, "and relieving sanctions would make the Tehran regime flush with cash and could create a more dangerous threat to the United States and its allies."
Until Congress approved the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act, authored by Corker, the Iran agreement would have gone straight to the United Nations.
"Whatever actions the House and Senate ultimately take, the American people will have a full and open debate that a national security issue of this magnitude deserves," he said.
In addition to the law ensuring Congress gets full details of the deal and a review period, it requires that the president certify Iran is complying and can reimpose sanctions if Iran fails to live up to the agreement.
Watch the video here.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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