US SENATE HARRY REID BLOCK IRAN BILL
Washington, 12 Rabiul Awal 1435/14 January 2014 (MINA) – The US Senate majority leader, Harry Reid has prevented the Senate from voting on a controversial anti-Iran bill that already has the support of some 60 senators.
Reid, a democrat, is holding up the vote after President Barack Obama urged the Senate not to pass the legislation, which would impose additional sanctions on Tehran over its nuclear energy program if a recent deal reached in Geneva between Iran and the P5+1 nations fails.
Reid’s move also comes after the European Union foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, announced Sunday that Iran and the six world powers – the US, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany – agreed to begin implementing the Geneva nuclear deal on January 20.
The interim deal was reached on Nov. 24 after days of intense talks between the two sides. Press TV reported as quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA).
Earlier, President Obama threatened that he would veto any legislation that pushes for further sanctions on Iran as nuclear negotiations are still underway with the country. Obama warned that the Senate’s bill could close the door on diplomacy.
Under the Geneva agreement, the P5+1 undertook to lift some of the existing sanctions against Iran in exchange for Tehran’s confidence-building measure to limit certain aspects of its nuclear activities for a six-month period. It was also agreed that no nuclear-related sanctions would be imposed on the country within the same timeframe.
The Emergency Committee for Israel, a pro-Israel lobby, is now calling on Reid to allow a vote on the sanctions bill despite the announcement by the EU foreign policy chief.
Angry with recent progress made in a decade-long dispute between the West and Iran, the ECI said in its statement that “Obama is willing to accept an agreement that weakens even the original ‘bad deal’ he announced two months ago.”
In November, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounced the Geneva agreement as “a bad deal.” Since then, pro-Israel lobbies have tried hard to step up pressure on Iran by pushing for the sanctions bill in Congress.
US President Barack Obama has welcomed the agreement to implement the nuclear deal. He added that he would veto “any legislation enacting new sanctions during the negotiation of the long-term agreement with Iran.”
The US and other nations will give “modest relief” on sanctions against Iran as the country fulfills its commitments under the deal, Obama said. However, Washington “will move to increase our sanctions” if Tehran does not follow through, he added.
“With today’s agreement, we have made concrete progress,” Obama said in a statement Sunday, pointing out that now work on a broader long-term deal with Iran will begin.
“I have no illusions about how hard it will be to achieve this objective, but for the sake of our national security and the peace and security of the world, now is the time to give diplomacy a chance to succeed”. (T/P04/E1/mirajnews.com)
Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)
