WASHINGTON — Secretary of State John Kerry personally pleaded with House Republicans and Democrats on Monday to give the Obama administration more room to negotiate a final nuclear deal with Iran, but several lawmakers said they remained skeptical and a bill to give Congress a say about a deal gained momentum.
Republicans and Democrats who maintain that Congress should be able to weigh in on an international deal with Tehran to curb its nuclear program have lined up behind the legislation. President Barack Obama has pushed back, threatening a veto while warning that Congress should not take any action before negotiators from the U.S., Iran and five other nations have a chance to reach a deal by the end of June.
“We have two and a half months more to negotiate, that’s a serious amount of time with some serious business left to do,” Kerry told reporters outside a congressional auditorium where he was giving a closed-door briefing. “We hope Congress listens carefully and ask the questions that it wants. But also give us the space and the time to be able to complete a very difficult task which has high stakes for our country.”
A Senate panel is set to vote Tuesday on the intensely debated bill that would give Congress a say on a potential deal aimed at keeping Tehran from developing a nuclear weapon.
“There have been some tweaks,” Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said Monday evening. “I’m hopeful that we’re going to be successful tomorrow.”