The battle over the Iran nuclear agreement is set to move to Washington as the Obama administration begins a three-month campaign to stop the hard-won deal being derailed by congressional Republicans.
The deal – reached in a Vienna hotel early on Tuesday morning after prolonged talks between foreign ministers – binds Iran, the US, UK, France, Germany, Russia and China to a series of undertakings stretching over many years. Iran will dismantle much of its nuclear infrastructure, while the UN, US and European Union will remove a wall of sanctions built around Iran over the last nine years.
Republicans and some Democratic hawks in Congress, who have long argued that there should be no nuclear programme on Iranian soil whatsoever, are determined to find ways to sabotage an agreement that they argue seeks to manage rather than prevent an Iranian nuclear programme and endangers Israel.
The struggle to win over wavering Democratic votes in the Senate will pit some American allies against others. The Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, signalled that he would intervene assertively in the debate on Capitol Hill in an attempt to kill the deal, which will grant sanctions relief to Iran in return for its acceptance of long-lasting curbs on its nuclear programme. In that debate, Israel will be assisted by the Gulf Arab monarchies.
On the other side, Britain, France and Germany – all parties to the historic agreement – will be called on to support the administration’s argument, that the agreement protects the US and its friends in the region.
In a statement to coincide with the announcement of the deal, known officially as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Barack Obama said: “I am confident that this deal will meet the national security interest of the United States and our allies. So I will veto any legislation that prevents the successful implementation of this deal.”
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