A top Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives says a bipartisan group of hundreds of lawmakers is sending a letter to President Barack Obama requesting increased congressional weight in the ongoing talks to reach a nuclear deal with Iran.
A draft of the letter referred to by Congressman Eliot Engel emphasizes that permanent sanctions relief, which Iran has repeatedly requested during the Geneva negotiations, would require new legislation.
“In reviewing such an agreement, Congress must be convinced that its terms foreclose any pathway to a bomb,” the lawmakers wrote, adding that “Iran’s role in fomenting instability in the region … demonstrates the risks of negotiating with a partner we cannot trust.”
A staff member for Engel, the ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said 363 members of Congress signed the letter.
“It’s truly a very bipartisan letter expressing Congress’s strong feelings about things that need to be in the agreement,” Engel said during a House hearing on Iran. “Congress really needs to play a very active and vital role in this whole process, and any attempts to sidestep Congress will be resisted on both sides of the aisle [ by both Democrats and Republicans].”
The West has accused Iran of seeking nuclear weapons, but Iran insists its nuclear activity is solely for peaceful, civilian purposes, such as medical research and generating power.
A group of 47 Republican senators last week sent a letter to Iranian leaders warning any deal could be reversed after Obama leaves office.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has been in Switzerland this week, meeting with his Iranian counterpart as the United States and its partner countries in the P5+1 attempt to reach an outline of an agreement before March 31.
A U.S. State Department official says no draft document is being circulated and “fundamental framework issues are still under comprehensive discussion.” The statement comes in response to an Associated Press report earlier in the day describing a preliminary agreement that would provide relief from economic sanctions on Iran in exchange for a 40 percent reduction in Tehran’s infrastructure that could be used to make a nuclear bomb.
Diplomats for the countries involved in negotiations have been tight-lipped about the terms under discussion. The deadline for a comprehensive agreement is at the end of June.
Pam Dockins contributed to this report from the State Department, Victoria Macchi also contributed to this report.
