Landmark Iran Deal Gains Enough Support To Override GOP Veto

Pres­id­ent Obama has clinched enough sup­port to en­sure that his land­mark nuc­le­ar deal with Ir­an and six glob­al powers can get through Con­gress.

Sen. Bar­bara Mikul­ski an­nounced Wed­nes­day that she is in fa­vor of the deal, be­com­ing the 34th Demo­crat­ic sen­at­or to do so. Obama, who faced a con­cer­ted, mul­ti­mil­lion-dol­lar op­pos­i­tion cam­paign, can now sus­tain a veto should Con­gress pass a res­ol­u­tion of dis­ap­prov­al in the next few weeks.

“No deal is per­fect, es­pe­cially one ne­go­ti­ated with the Ir­a­ni­an re­gime,” said Mikul­ski in a state­ment out­lining how the deal an­swers her eight key ques­tions on sanc­tions re­lief, the in­spec­tion re­gime, and al­tern­at­ive strategies. “I have con­cluded that this Joint Com­pre­hens­ive Plan of Ac­tion is the best op­tion avail­able to block Ir­an from hav­ing a nuc­le­ar bomb.”

The deal would sig­ni­fic­antly lim­it Ir­an’s nuc­le­ar pro­gram for at least the next dec­ade in re­turn for lift­ing sanc­tions worth up to $150 bil­lion. If Con­gress voted down the deal with a veto-proof ma­jor­ity, the ad­min­is­tra­tion wouldn’t be able to lift con­gres­sion­al sanc­tions, im­per­il­ing the pact.