With a Tuesday deadline approaching for Iran, the Obama administration, and five other world powers to strike a deal to stem the Tehran government’s nuclear program, congressional Republicans Sunday ratcheted up pressure against the yet-to-be completed pact.
On a Sunday news show and in a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel, House and Senate Republican leaders said they intend to move forward with a bill to require the White House to get congressional approval on any Iranian nuclear deal.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., on a visit to Israel, stood beside Netanyahu Sunday and listened as the recently-re-elected prime minister sharply criticized the deal being negotiated in Lausanne, Switzerland.
"The group who are here share your concerns about this potential agreement," McConnell responded in a video released by the Israeli government. "The option if there is an agreement is a bill that we intend to vote on that enjoys bipartisan support to require that agreement to come to Congress for approval. If there’s no deal then the view of this group, similar to you own, is that ratcheting up sanctions might be the best direction in the wake of a deal that does not come together.”
White House officials said Monday that they hadn’t heard McConnell’s comments. Eric Schultz, a White House spokesman, said “lawmakers from both parties visit the state of Israel all the time and we think that’s entirely appropriate.”
But Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said McConnell’s words and deeds in Israel “are a departure from a tradition of politics ending at the water’s edge.”
“There is both a policy and political element to the Senate Majority Leader’s visit to Israel, the one designed to show public disagreement with the president over a potential nuclear deal and the other to cement a relationship between the GOP and” the Likud party, Schiff said Monday.
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, who’s scheduled to travel to Israel during the two-week congressional recess, blasted the negotiations with Iran in an appearance Sunday on CNN’s "State of the Union."
"We have got a regime that's never quite kept their word about anything," said of Iran. "I just don't understand why we would sign an agreement with a group of people who, in my opinion, have no intention of keeping their word."
Like McConnell, Boehner mentioned the congressional bill to force Obama to seek Capitol Hill’s okay on the nuclear deal.
"Listen, the sanctions were working," Boehner told CNN’s Dana Bash. "They would have never come to the table. And, frankly, we should have kept the sanctions in place, so that we could have gotten a real agreement."
He added that "the sanctions are going to come, and they're going to come quick."
Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, joined the GOP leadership’s chorus with a written statement Sunday, urging the administration and its negotiating partners not to rush "headlong" into a deal.
The other countries involved in the talks are the United Kingdom, Russia, China, France and Germany.
"I am concerned our negotiators may be cutting corners and overlooking significant issues as they rush headlong into a deal," Corker said. "Our nation and the world would be much better off if they would slow down or pause to ensure that if a deal is reached, it will be enforceable, hold Iran accountable, and be strong enough to stand the test of time."
Corker said that "with all of the turmoil in the region today, a bad deal is far worse than no deal."