US Senate panel votes for review of Iran deal

OREANDA-NEWS. April 15, 2015. The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted unanimously today to approve a bill that would allow lawmakers to review any Iran nuclear deal before President Barack Obama could suspend sanctions.

After the White House relented in its opposition to the bill in the wake of a rebellion on Capitol Hill, the panel voted 19-0 today in favor of the Nuclear Agreement Review Act. The bill would give Congress 30 days if a deal is submitted by 10 July to debate the merits of a deal before statutory sanctions could be waived or suspended. Congress then will have an opportunity to take up a resolution of disapproval if lawmakers are dissatisfied with a final nuclear agreement.

The full Senate will take up the bill in coming weeks.

Running up to the vote today, the White House has threatened repeatedly to veto the bill. Secretary of state John Kerry, treasury secretary Jack Lew and energy secretary Ernest Moniz visited both sides of Capitol Hill today, to discuss the nuclear negotiations and lobby for defeat of the bill.

While the committee made some changes to accommodate the White House's concerns, committee chairman Bob Corker (R-Tennessee) said administration officials pulled back "when they saw how many senators were going to vote for this."

The White House said moments before the committee meeting that if lawmakers proceeded with the changes agreed to "that would be the kind of compromise the President would be willing to sign."

Corker had sponsored the bill along with the committee's former ranking Democrat Robert Menendez (New Jersey), who assumed a lesser role on the panel after being indicted on alleged corruption charges.

Calling the bill "a balance that is very, very appropriate," Corker said the bill "forces the administration to bring to us every detail, if there happens to be a final agreement. Every detail."

The US and its P5 + 1 negotiating partners – the UK, France, Russia, China and Germany - reached a political agreement with Iran on 2 April that would swap nuclear concessions for trade sanctions relief. The agreement will serve as a framework as negotiators try to reach a final, comprehensive agreement by 30 June. Negotiations are expected to resume next week.

Opec's fourth largest oil producer, Iran produced 2.8mn b/d in March, down from 2.9mn b/d in February. During the nuclear talks, Iran's oil exports have been limited to about 1.1mn b/d, not including condensate, down from 2.5mn b/d in 2012.

The framework calls for limiting Iran's domestic enrichment capacity for 10 years and ensuring a "breakout" time of at least a year for development of a nuclear weapon.

In exchange, Iran would see sanctions imposed since 2010 suspended. That means the EU embargo on Iranian oil would be lifted. The US would agree not to threaten the banks of countries that import Iranian crude. Iran's energy sector would be open to investment. Iran's shipping industry would be free of sanctions, and insurers would be able to provide coverage for Iran's oil tankers.

US oil companies still would be barred from doing business with Iran, since sanctions imposed in response to alleged human rights abuses and terrorist activity would remain. And if Iran fails to meet its nuclear obligations, the sanctions would "snap back" into place.

Lawmakers addressed one White House concern by paring back the number of days for the Senate to evaluate the deal from 60 days to 30.

Yesterday, the White House objected to language that would require the president to certify that Iran "has not directly supported or carried out an act of terrorism against the US." The White House said "we do not anticipate in the context of this agreement being able to resolve all of our concerns about Iran's terror activities."

Senator Ben Cardin (D-Maryland), who has become the new ranking Democrat on the committee, said the deal is "complicated enough" without trying to address the terrorism issue.

The panel voted down an amendment sponsored by senator John Barrasso (R-Wyoming) that would have restored the terrorism language. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Connecticut) said the changes made to the bill have made it "benign" regarding the nuclear talks.

But senator Marco Rubio (R-Florida), who has thrown his hat into the 2016 presidential race, had wanted to push ahead with an amendment that would require that Iran's leaders publicly declare that Israel has a right to exist. "I am concerned about the destruction of Israel," Rubio said.

Rubio said he does not plan to abandon his effort. "This is an issue we are going to have to talk about on the floor," Rubio said.