Vast Precedent Exists for Congress to Reject, Change Iran Deal
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry explains a point to Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. (Photo: © Reuters)
Although the Obama administration billed the recently-negotiated nuclear agreement with Iran as “this deal or nothing,” a vast precedent exists in American history where Congress rejected, modified or blocked international agreements made by the president.
Writing in The Wall Street Journal, law professor and former leading attorney regarding nuclear affairs for the State Department Orde Kittrie points out, “Congress has flatly rejected international agreements signed by the executive branch at least 130 times in U.S. history. Twenty-two treaties were voted down. According to 1987 and 2001 Congressional Research Service reports, the Senate has permanently blocked at least 108 other treaties by refusing to vote on them.”
Kittrie also cites earlier reports that show that “more than 200 treaties agreed by the executive branch were subsequently modified with Senate-required changes before receiving Senate consent and finally entering into force.”
U.S. President Barack Obama warned Congressional rejection of this agreement will cause America to forgo its “credibility as a leader of diplomacy” as the “anchor of the international system.” However, as recently as 1990, the Senate insisted changes be made to two nuclear agreements negotiated with the Soviet Union – specifically that verifications procedures be beefed up to make it easier to tell if the Soviets were cheating.
“These renegotiations succeeded despite the fact that the Soviet Union, with its nuclear-armed missiles pointed at U.S. cities, had far more leverage than Iran does now,” Kittrie states.
During Obama’s tenure, a nuclear agreement with the United Arab Emirates was renegotiated after Congress objected to the original deal allowing for enrichment of uranium and reprocessing of spent fuel.
In announcing his opposition to the agreement, leading DemocraticSenator Charles Schumer suggested renegotiating the agreement saying, “Better to keep U.S. sanctions in place, strengthen them, enforce secondary sanctions on other nations, and pursue the hard-trodden path of diplomacy once more, difficult as it may be.”
Although at this time, it does not look like Congress will have the votes to override a presidential veto which Obama has already warned will come if Congress rejects the deal, the president has more than ample recourse to lift sanctions on Iran without Congressional approval.
“Obama can give most of the sanctions relief under the agreement through executive order,” notes Mark Dubowitz, the executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and an expert in sanctions and illicit financing.
While only Congress can lift sanctions imposed by the legislative branch, AP reports the president has the power to suspend other U.S. sanctions: “He could issue new orders to permit financial transactions that otherwise are banned now. On the financial sector, Obama could use executive orders to remove certain Iranians and entities, including nearly two dozen Iranian banks, from U.S. lists, meaning they no longer would be subject to economic penalties.”
Meanwhile in Iran, a verdict may be delivered as early as next week in the trial of The Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian whom the regime as accused of being a spy. Calling the trial a “sham,”The Washington Post Executive editor Martin Baron – as well as Rezaian’s family – believes the charges were invented by the regime as an aggression against the United States.
The Iranian regime admitted to holding over 1,000 Iranian teachers in prison, although the actual number may be far greater. The admission by a deputy in the Ministry of Education was reportedly in response to escalating and on-going protests of fellow teachers who say that their colleagues are being held as political prisoners.
The government has threatened to arrest more teachers under the charges of “propaganda against the system” and “activity against national security.”
Following widespread and nationwide protests of teachers in May, General Secretary of the Teachers AssociationEsmail Abdi was told by the intelligence ministry if the protests continue, he would be arrested.
Amid continuing demonstrations, Abdi was arrested on June 27 while trying to leave the country to participate in the Canada International Conference on Education. He has since been denied access to his lawyer.
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