Deadline for Senate Review Ends and Republicans Fail to Reject Iran Deal

The minority supporting the nuclear agreement with Iran in the U.S. Senate thwarted the majority Republicans' last efforts to reject the deal on Thursday, September 17. Democratic representatives, on the day the Senate was required to announce its final vote on the nuclear agreement, prevented the review of the agreement in the Senate for the third time using a procedural maneuver. According to Reuters, the Democratic and independent minority supporting the Iran nuclear agreement managed to perhaps protect what is seen as the 'greatest' foreign policy victory of the Obama administration. On Thursday, the U.S. Senate voted for the third time on the sufficiency of negotiations regarding the nuclear agreement with Iran, but it only garnered 56 votes in favor, failing to reach the required threshold of 60 votes. 42 senators opposed the sufficiency of negotiations. Reuters reports that given the Republicans' failure to reject the Iran nuclear agreement and the lack of another scheduled vote on the agreement in the Senate, it appears that by the end of Thursday (Washington time), opponents of the agreement will not be able to take further action, and the President of the United States will implement the agreement. The congressional deadline for reviewing the nuclear agreement with Iran and voting on it ends on Thursday, September 17. Initial reactions to the implementation of the agreement came from Senator John Cornyn, the second-ranking Republican in the U.S. Senate, who stated that the nuclear agreement with Iran will be implemented while the American people did not have the opportunity to express their views on it. Mitch McConnell, the Republican majority leader in the U.S. Senate, also stated that the agreement (nuclear deal with Iran) could potentially be reviewed by the next Commander-in-Chief (the next U.S. President). Mr. McConnell added that the negative consequences of this agreement would 'extend even beyond the remaining months of [Obama's] presidency.' Meanwhile, Dianne Feinstein, a Democratic senator from California, stated that it is time to move past efforts to overturn the nuclear agreement with Iran and that this agreement should be considered finalized. In the Thursday vote, Marco Rubio and Rand Paul, two Republican senators who are candidates for the presidential election from the party, were absent. Meanwhile, Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham, two other candidates from the Republican Party, were present in the Senate vote and voted in favor of the sufficiency of negotiations. The Republicans' efforts in recent weeks to garner support from Democratic and independent senators resulted in Ben Cardin, Joe Manchin, Robert Menendez, and Charles Schumer joining the ranks of those opposing the agreement and voting in favor of the sufficiency of negotiations to reject the nuclear agreement with Iran, which would have paved the way for a final vote. On Thursday, the Republican majority in the U.S. Senate made two attempts to reject the nuclear agreement with Iran. Initially, a new proposal from the Republican majority in the U.S. Senate regarding the Iran nuclear agreement was introduced, which conditioned the implementation of the Iran agreement on 'recognizing Israel' and 'the release of American prisoners in Iran.' However, this new proposal also failed to achieve the necessary 60 votes for consideration, receiving only 53 votes in favor while 45 senators opposed it. After that, Republicans hoped to enter the final vote on the nuclear agreement by re-voting on the sufficiency of negotiations, which, given the majority's opposition in the Senate to this agreement, would lead to its rejection. However, this last attempt also failed to achieve the necessary threshold, and thus the effort to vote on and reject the nuclear agreement remained unsuccessful. The U.S. House of Representatives, however, on Friday, September 20, symbolically rejected the proposal to approve the Iran nuclear agreement with six world powers (JCPOA) with 269 votes against and 162 votes in favor. However, given the actions of the minority supporting the agreement in the U.S. Senate to prevent voting on this matter, the rejection of this agreement in the House of Representatives would not prevent its implementation by the Barack Obama administration. Iran and six world powers reached a comprehensive agreement in Vienna on July 14 to resolve the Islamic Republic's nuclear dispute. Under this agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Iran's nuclear program is limited, and in return, most international sanctions against Tehran will be lifted.