US Congress seeks to blow up Iran nuclear deal: Ron Paul

Former American presidential candidate Ron Paul has roundly denounced US Congress efforts to win a say on nuclear negotiations between Iran and the P5+1, saying hawkish lawmakers are trying to blow up a potential agreement.

“The really, really hawkish neoconservatives, who are very adamant, not only are they opposed without even knowing the details of what this UN group is working on, they’re opposed to any deal whatsoever, and they’ve been very explicit about this," Paul told his co-host on the Ron Paul Liberty Report.

The veteran politician said while some lawmakers in Congress decry diplomacy with Iran as an executive overreach, they have remained silent in the face of violent aspects of the Obama administration’s foreign policy.

“Just think how often the president does things, if the Congress likes it and it’s unconstitutional – like starting a war – there’s no hubbub," he noted.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee unanimously approved a bill that would allow the Congress to review a final nuclear agreement with Tehran.

The legislation passed the committee in a 19-0 vote on Tuesday.

According to the legislation, Obama should submit the final nuclear deal for congressional review, and he would not be allowed to lift sanctions levied by Congress against Iran during the review period.

Paul, howsoever, said the bill is nothing but propaganda by the US and Israel to spread Iranophobia.

“Why are people so frightened and intimidated and terrified of a country that for ten years now has been proven by security forces in Israel and the United States…, and the United Nations, that there is no evidence that they are building a bomb,” Paul said.  “Maybe the real reason was to scuttle the [nuclear deal]."

A framework nuclear agreement was reached between Iran and the P5+1 group – the US, Britain, France, China, Russia and Germany – in the Swiss city of Lausanne on April 2. The two sides will work to draw up a final accord by the end of June.

If a final deal is reached, it would lift all international sanctions imposed against the Islamic Republic in exchange for certain steps Tehran will take with regard to its nuclear program.

Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned against an emerging final nuclear agreement, expressing concern over the removal of anti-Iran sanctions.

Rodney Martin, a former congressional staffer told Press TV on Thursday that the Republican-dominated Congress is taking its orders from Netanyahu to make sure there will be no deal with Iran.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and “the Zionist Jewish lobby are pulling the strings of the Congress… to grasp at any straw they can to ensure that there is no agreement with Iran,” the analyst said.

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