US Congress supports war, discourages peace efforts: Journalist

The US Congress approves any legislation that is related to violence, killings and wars, but discourages efforts to make peace with other countries, American journalist, author and activist Harvey Wasserman says.

Wasserman made the remarks in a phone interview with Press TV on Saturday while commenting on a bill introduced by some hawkish senators that would require President Barack Obama to submit the text of any nuclear with deal Iran to Congress for review. 

He said it seems that the Republican-dominated Congress would not let Obama to reach a political settlement with Iran over its nuclear program.

“This is a situation where the Congress, the Republicans, seem to want to allow Obama, the president, to make unlimited war in Afghanistan and elsewhere, but can’t make peace [with] Iran,” Wasserman said.

He added that “it’s very disturbing that we are in a situation now with a permanent war going on… in Iraq and Afghanistan for so long with no apparent end and yet when it comes time to make to make peace and negotiate a settlement” of the Iranian nuclear issue “this seems to be a problem.”

The Ohio-based peace activist said the United States is being “drained by these wars” and yet Congress is not making any efforts to stop them.

“Anything that has to do with violence and killings, the Congress seems to be in favor of that and anything having to do with making peace, there seems to be opposition,” Wasserman noted.

The anti-Iran bill dubbed as the "Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015" was introduced on Friday by Senators Bob Corker, Robert Menendez, Lindsey Graham and Tim Kaine.

Senators John McCain, Joe Donnelly, Marco Rubio, Heidi Heitkamp, Kelly Ayotte, Bill Nelson, Jim Risch, and Angus King co-sponsored the bill.

It is not yet known when the bill would come to a vote in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The legislation is seen as a challenge to Obama’s authority over a possible nuclear agreement with Tehran.

Nuclear talks between representatives from Iran and the United States started on February 22 in the Swiss city of Geneva and the two sides held three rounds of talks in two days in an attempt to narrow differences ahead of a key July 1 deadline for reaching a comprehensive deal.

The scale of Iran’s uranium enrichment and the timetable for the lifting of anti-Iran sanctions are seen as major sticking points in the talks.

Both the Iranian and US diplomats said some progress was made toward a final agreement.

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