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41 US senators promise to back Iran nuclear deal

Xinhua, September 9, 2015

• Three more U.S. Democratic senators said Tuesday that they would support the Iran nuclear deal, giving President Brack Obama the votes he needs to prevent the Senate from passing a measure disapproving of the deal.

  The three senators who said they would back the agreement are Gary Peters of Michigan, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Ron Wyden of Oregon, bringing the number of lawmakers who have announced their decision to favor the deal to 41, according to local media reports.

  "Despite my serious concerns with this agreement, I have unfortunately become convinced that we are faced with no viable alternative," Peters said.

  "While this is not the agreement I would have accepted at the negotiating table, it is better than no deal at all," Blumenthal said.

  "This agreement with the duplicitous and untrustworthy Iranian regime falls short of what I had envisioned, however, I have decided the alternatives are even more dangerous," Wyden wrote.

  The decisions were made on the first day when lawmakers reassembled after a month-long recess. Six Democrats remained undecided with 38 having openly favored the deal before the three senators' announcements Tuesday.

  After Democratic senator Barbara Mikulski said last week that she would support the Iran deal, there were 34 Obama backing votes on the Senate. The number is already enough to uphold any congressional resolution disapproving the agreement.

  If numbers hold, the 41 senators will be more than enough to block a Republican-backed resolution to disapprove the deal and will save President Barack Obama's veto from use.

  It requires approval of two-thirds lawmakers in both the House and the Senate to override the veto. The Senate has 100 members.

  U.S. lawmakers have until Sept. 17 to vote on the Iran nuclear deal, which has been widely opposed by Republicans who control both chambers of Congress. Most Republicans believe that the deal made too many concessions to Iran and still it can not stop Iran from building nuclear weapons. They threaten to kill the deal in Congress with a resolution of disapproval.

  The three new Democrats' support came as another member of the party announced his opposition to to the Iran deal Tuesday. Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia made a total of four Democrats to oppose the deal, following Charles E. Schumer, Robert Menendez, and Ben Cardin.

  "This agreement will stand," Democratic Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, said in a speech Tuesday at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "America will uphold its commitment and we will seize this opportunity to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon."

  The Iran nuclear agreement was reached in July after extensive negotiations between Iran and the so called "5+1" group, namely Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States and Germany.

  "This deal blocks every way, every pathway that Iran might take in order to develop a nuclear weapon," President Obama said late last month.

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