Likud MK: Congress will overwhelmingly reject nuke deal

Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman Tzachi Hanegbi said Wednesday he is convinced the US Congress will vote overwhelmingly against the Iranian nuclear deal, irrespective of the agreement’s potential effects on Israeli security.

Hanegbi, a Likud MK, told Israel Radio that Israel was not pressing members of Congress to reject the deal based on the concerns of the Jewish state, but rather was urging them to consider whether the agreement was truly in the best interests of the US.

“We have plenty of arguments as to why the agreement weakens the United States,” he said.

The agreement, reached between Iran and the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany on July 14, would curtail Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for billions of dollars in relief from economic sanctions.

Congress is set to vote next month on a resolution to determine whether to accept or reject the agreement. Secretary of State John Kerry said Tuesday that if Congress rejects the deal, the US won’t be able to prevent allies from doing business with Tehran. But Chuck Schumer, the only Democratic senator to publicly oppose the deal so far, said separately that that even if the US backs away and other countries lift their sanctions, Iran will still feel meaningful pressure from the US penalties.

Earlier Tuesday, 36 retired US generals and admirals published an open letter that gave their full backing to the Iranian nuclear deal, hailing it as “the most effective means currently available to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.”

“The international deal blocks the potential pathways to a nuclear bomb, provides for intrusive verification, and strengthens American national security. America and our allies, in the Middle East and around the world, will be safer when this agreement is fully implemented,” they wrote.

Also Tuesday, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah during a meeting in Beirut that the Iran nuclear deal presents a “historic opportunity” to combat Israeli “threats,” Hezbollah’s al-Manar television station reported. “Zarif said from Beirut that the nuclear agreement between Tehran and the world powers created a “historic opportunity” for regional cooperation “to fight extremism and face threats posed by the Zionist entity.”

Along with the Syrian regime, the Lebanon-based terror group Hezbollah is funded by Iran. Hezbollah has dispatched thousands of fighters to support embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad in the country’s five-year civil war.

AP and AFP contributed to this report.