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Iran deal should not reduce pressure on Tehran: Senate Majority Leader

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell

US lawmakers opposing a framework agreement reached between Iran and world powers are planning a formal response to the deal in spite of President Barack Obama’s warning to veto new sanctions on Tehran.

On Monday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell criticized the framework agreement, saying it should not reduce “pressure” on the Islamic Republic.

"The administration needs to explain to the Congress and the American people why an interim agreement should result in reduced pressure on” Iran, the Republican senator said in a statement.

"The Senate will review these parameters more thoroughly," he said, "and respond legislatively."

He said that Iran is benefiting more from the deal than the P5+1 group because it was able to retain a number of centrifuges while having sanctions be removed against the country.

"Iran will continue to enrich uranium and retain more than 6,000 centrifuges, and continue the research and development of more advanced centrifuges," McConnell said. "Under no terms should the administration suspend sanctions, nor should the United Nations remove sanctions.”

McConnell also repeated his pledge to examine legislation proposed by hawkish Senators Bob Corker and Bob Menendez requiring any Iran nuclear deal to be reviewed by Congress.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will start taking up the bill next Tuesday, said McConnell, one of the main US congressional figures behind Washington’s sanctions against Iran.

The bill would also ban the White House from lifting any sanctions for a period of 60 days so that Congress could hold hearings and debate the deal.

Iran and the P+1 group – the US, Britain, France, China, Russia and Germany – reached a framework agreement in the Swiss city of Lausanne on April 2.

The deal would lift all international sanctions imposed against the Islamic Republic in exchange for certain steps Tehran will take with regard to its nuclear program.

AT/AGB


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