GOP Senators Rubio and Kirk intensify efforts against Iran deal

Conservative Republicans have proposed amendments to legislation allowing the US Congress to review a nuclear agreement with Iran, with Senators Marco Rubio and Mark Kirk attempting to tie Israel to the controversial bill.

The pro-Israel politicians have intensified their efforts to attach amendments to the recent deal struck between Republican Senator Bob Corker and Democrat Senator Ben Cardin that would allow the Republican-dominated Congress to weigh in on any agreement reached between the P5+1 and Iran over its nuclear energy program, the Washington-based newspaper The Hill reported on Sunday.

The report said the senators are pushing ahead with their anti-Iran moves despite the fact that the White House and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid have warned against changes that could force Democrats to withdraw their support for the bill.

Rubio, a presidential hopeful, together with Senator Kirk, the Republicans who have emerged as strong supporters of Israel and have backed harsh sanctions against Iran, want to include in the Corker-Cardin agreement a requirement that Obama must certify that Iran publicly recognize the Israeli regime.

Earlier this month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demanded that a final nuclear agreement with Iran must include a "clear and unambiguous Iranian recognition of Israel's right to exist."

The US president, however, has said that recognition of Israel cannot be a part of the nuclear agreement with Iran.

Obama said on April 6 that requiring Tehran to recognize Israel is a "fundamental misjudgment".

Rubio and Kirk are also attempting to tie the release of Americans currently being held in Iran, including the release of Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, to the nuclear agreement.

Rezaian and his wife, Yeganeh Salehi, were arrested in July. In October, Salehi was released on bail. 

The 38-year-old is facing four charges including espionage, “collaborating with hostile governments” and spreading “propaganda”.

Rubio and Kirk said in a statement that “the Obama administration should demand Mr. Rezaian’s immediate release along with all other Americans wrongfully imprisoned in Iran prior to concluding a nuclear deal” with Iran. 

Iran and P5+1 group of countries - the US, Britain, France, China, Russia and Germany - reached a mutual understanding on Tehran’s nuclear program on April 2 in Switzerland. The two sides are expected to start drafting a final deal which they seek to sign 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.

The United States should not lift sanctions against Iran as part of an emerging nuclear agreement, Kirk said last week.

“Lately, Iran has tried to backtrack on the promises they made to President Obama,” the Republican of Illinois said on April 18, referring to an Iranian demand that all sanctions must immediately be lifted upon reaching a final nuclear accord.

Kirk claimed that the sanctions legislation he co-sponsored four years ago forced Iran back to the negotiating table. "This was probably the entire reason why the Iranians even showed up at the negotiations."

 Meanwhile, Rubio, the Cuban American known as an ultimate opportunist even within the Republican Party, has called on Washington to bomb Iran’s nuclear infrastructure.

“We may have to decide at some point what is worse: a military strike against Iran or a nuclear-armed Iran,” the 43-year-old said on April 17.

“I am not cheerleading for war. I don’t want there to be the need to use military force, but a nuclear Iran is an unacceptable risk for the region and the world,” he said.

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