Israel expects US Congress to block Iran nuclear deal, top Likud figure says
Israel anticipates that the US Congress will heed its call and vote down the Iran nuclear deal against the wishes of the Obama administration, the head of the powerful Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee told Israel Radio on Tuesday.
“I’m convinced that the American Congress will reject by a large majority the nuclear agreement with Iran,” MK Tzachi Hanegbi (Likud) said. “There is a plethora of explanations and reasons as to why the agreement weakens the United States.”
Hanegbi told Israel Radio that the government in Jerusalem was urging members of Congress to view the agreement through the prism of “what was good for their country, not Israel.”
The Israeli government certainly has its work cut out for it, especially after Senator Brian Schatz said on Monday he backs the US-led international nuclear deal with Iran, becoming the 16th senator to do so and moving President Barack Obama one vote closer to locking in enough Senate votes to make the deal fly.
A liberal, Jewish-born lawmaker from Hawaii, Schatz had been expected to come down in favor of the deal. But his decision was noteworthy because it came just a few days after another Jewish senator, Democrat Chuck Schumer of New York, announced his opposition to the Iran agreement.
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