The multifront effort to sell the international agreement on Iran’s nuclear program to U.S. lawmakers and skeptical allies continues Thursday, a day after U.S. President Barack Obama gave a staunch defense of the deal as the best way to keep Iran from having a nuclear weapon.
Vice President Joe Biden, who on Wednesday met privately with Democrats from the House of Representatives, is returning to Capitol Hill to hold similar talks with Democrats on the Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee.
Obama has said he will veto any congressional rejection of the plan that may come during the 60-day review period that lawmakers will have.
If that happens, a two-thirds majority in both the House and Senate would be needed to override the veto.
Critic of agreement
One of the harshest critics of the agreement, Republican Senator John McCain, told VOA “it’s doubtful” enough Democrats would join Republicans to get the necessary votes for a veto override.
Meanwhile, the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee, a powerful lobby group, said Wednesday the deal has “significant flaws” and urged members to call for their members of Congress to reject it.
WATCH: Obama calls out critics of Iran nuclear accord
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeatedly criticized the negotiations throughout the process and said Wednesday his country will continue to oppose the agreement.
Netanyahu is meeting Thursday with British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, one of the diplomats who negotiated with Iran to seal the historic agreement earlier this week.
Hammond said ahead of his talks with Netanyahu that he does not foresee lobbying efforts leading to a rejection in Congress.
‘Will not succeed’
Netanyahu “has made clear that he intends to fight it all the way and that Israel will seek to use its influence in the U.S. Congress to obstruct the progress of the deal,” Hammond said. “I’m confident that that action will not succeed.”
Another arm of the effort to pitch the deal targets Saudi Arabia, an Iranian rival in the Middle East that stressed the need for Iran to focus its resources under the deal on improving the lives of its own people and not on “destabilizing the region.”
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will host Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir for talks Thursday in Washington.
During his Wednesday press conference at the White House, Obama told reporters the agreement “cuts off every single path” for Iran to build an atomic bomb, and that the pact will make the U.S., its allies and the world “safer and more secure.”
WATCH: McCain Concedes Congress unlikely to block Iran nuclear deal
He said if the United States, through the congressional review process, misses the chance to approve the deal, “history will judge us harshly.”
Obama also said another opportunity to complete a deal with Iran “may not come in our lifetime.”
Unrealistic aims
The president said the contention by some opponents that Iran should have no nuclear capability, not even for peaceful purposes, is unrealistic.
“The world does not agree that Iran can’t have a peaceful nuclear program,” Obama said, but added there is a broad consensus that Iran should not have a nuclear weapon.
He said there “will be real consequences” for Iran if it violates terms of the deal, including reintroduction of economic sanctions that will end if Tehran adheres to the deal it agreed to after months of talks with Britain, France, Germany, China, Russia and the U.S.
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