Obama: All of the options available to the United States – including the military option – will remain available through the life of the deal and beyond.
AFP/Reuters/Washington
The United States will respond firmly if Iran fails to honour the accord aimed at curbing its nuclear programme, President Barack Obama said yesterday as he works to win over undecided US lawmakers.
“We have a wide array of unilateral and multilateral responses that we can employ if Iran fails to meets its commitments,” Obama said in a letter dated August 19 and sent to Jerrold Nadler, a Democrat in the House of Representatives who announced that he will vote to approve the accord.
In his letter released by the White House, Obama reiterated his view that the accord reached last month in Vienna is good for the United States, Israel and the Middle East in general.
The president also insisted, as he has many times, that all options remain on the table if Iran does not abide by the accord.
The agreement lifts economic sanctions against Tehran in exchange for restrictions and other measures designed to prevent it from developing nuclear weapons.
“All of the options available to the United States – including the military option – will remain available through the life of the deal and beyond,” Obama said.
The letter was released as opponents of the accord wage a fierce campaign against it ahead of a vote in Congress in September.
Opponents say the accord goes too easy on Iran, by not allowing spot inspections of nuclear sites or forcing it to halt support of militant groups, for instance.
So far only two Democratic senators – Chuck Schumer and Robert Menendez – have come out publicly against the accord.
It is unlikely that opponents can muster the two-thirds majority they would to override a certain Obama veto if an initial vote by lawmakers rejects the accord.
Nadler said yesterday that he supports it.
It is not perfect, but it “gives us the best chance of stopping Iran from developing a nuclear weapon”, he said in a statement.
Nadler said that he had reached this conclusion from his perspective as “an American Jew who is both a Democrat and a strong supporter of Israel”.
The accord, vehemently opposed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has sharply divided the US Jewish community.
Obama needs to win the backing of one-third of either the House of Representatives or the Senate to prevent Republicans from killing the nuclear deal announced in July.
Signed by world powers and Iran, the agreement would require Tehran to abide by new limits on its nuclear programme in return for western governments easing economic sanctions.
According to a Reuters tally, Obama is eight votes away from capturing one-third of the Senate, or 34 senators, with about a month remaining to find the additional support he needs.
The Bipartisan Policy Centre, which is tracking lawmakers’ positions, said on Thursday that 69 House members now support the Iran deal, with another 140 in the 435-member chamber still undeclared.
Obama would need the support of at least 146 House members to safeguard the agreement in that chamber.
Even though Congress is on a five-week summer recess and Obama is vacationing in Martha’s Vineyard, the White House has kept up pressure on the president’s fellow Democrats to provide him with enough support when Congress casts votes in September.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, this month told a Kentucky newspaper that the battle in Congress “is stacked in the president’s favour”.
In a letter to colleagues yesterday, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said she was confident Democrats would prevent an override of a veto by Obama of a measure to kill the agreement.
