ISRAEL ‘EXERTING TREMONDOUS PREASURE’ ON US SENATE

Washington, 16 Rabiul Awal 1435/18 January 2014 (MINA) – The American Israeli Political Action Committee, represented by James H Fetzer said The Israeli lobby in the United States is pressuring US senators to impose further sanctions on Iran.

“The American Israeli Political Action Committee has been exerting tremendous pressure on the members of the Senate to stand up for additional sanctions against Iran, ” Fetzer told Press TV in a phone interview on Thursday.

An anti-Iran sanctions bill was introduced by Sens. Mark Kirk (R-Ill) and Robert Menendez (D-NJ) last month and has reportedly gathered 59 cosponsors in the 100-member upper chamber, Press tv reported quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA).

“President Obama appears to have called the bluff of those 59 senators by numbers, staggering number, who are indicating their opposition to the diplomatic solution to negotiations with Iran and the major powers,” Fetzer added.

The White House made it clear earlier this month that those senators who are supporting the new anti-Iran bill want the US to attack Iran, urging them to “be up front with the American public and say so.”

“What is so good about what Obama has done here is to insist that anyone who is supporting the sanctions acknowledge that they are for military action against Iran,” said Fetzer as he noted that the “American people are overwhelmingly opposed to any further military intervention by the United States in the Middle East.”

On Wednesday, Obama met with Senate Democrats in a closed-door session and urged them to reject the new sanctions bill against Iran.

Obama “made a really strong case for his position on Iran” in the hopes of giving “pause to anyone who wanted a vote while negotiations were ongoing,” a Senate aide said.

The powerful Israeli lobby group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), has put its political muscle behind the measure. However, its efforts appear to have stalled in the Senate as Majority Leader Harry Reid has for now backed away from a previous commitment to permit a vote on the bill sometime over the next few weeks.

Fetzer told that Israel’s anti-Iran efforts on Capitol Hill are “ridiculous” because “Israel is the problem.”

“Israel has a vast stock of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons it has never even declared and should be the focus of concern in the Middle East not Iran,” he added. (T/P04/E1)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)