Bernie Sanders, after call from Obama, backs Iran deal

Democratic presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont declared his support for the Iran nuclear deal on Friday, in an announcement that followed a call from President Barack Obama.

“I had some questions that I addressed to the president, and he responded,” Sanders told The New York Times. “The answers that he gave me helped me reach the final conclusion.”

Sanders’s endorsement came hours after Chuck Schumer (D-NY), the leading Jewish Democrat in the Senate, announced his opposition to the agreement reached between world powers and Tehran last month. The deal curbs Iran’s nuclear program in return for the lifting of crippling economic sanctions on the Islamic Republic.

The Vermont senator is an independent, but caucuses with the Democrats and is running for the party’s presidential nomination.

“This agreement is obviously not what many of us would have liked, but it beats the alternative: a war with Iran that could go on for years,” Sanders said in his statement announcing his support, according to The New York Times.

“The test of a great nation is not how many wars it can engage in, it is how it can resolve international conflicts in a peaceful manner,” he said. “I fear very much that many of my Republican colleagues do not understand that war must be a last resort, not a first resort. The United States must do everything it can to make certain that Iran does not get a nuclear weapon, that Israel is not threatened by a nuclear Iran and that a nuclear arms race in the region is avoided.”

Five weeks before crucial votes on the deal in Congress, Schumer’s decision was seen as a blow to the administration, whose intense lobbying on Capitol Hill since last month’s agreement had produced a steady stream of support from Democrats who had been the most vocal in demanding congressional oversight.

Schumer called Sanders on Friday morning to explain the rationale for his opposition, wrote The New York Times. “Chuck is a very smart guy and a very good senator. He and I will probably end up disagreeing on this vote,” Sanders told the paper on Friday.

Sanders’s website also quoted comments he made in an interview to CBS’s Face the Nation program, which will air Sunday.

“I’m not going to tell you that this is a perfect agreement. And every agreement can be better,” Sanders said. “This is what I saw recently in the Republican debate. It’s so easy to be critical of an agreement which is not perfect. But the United States has to negotiate with other countries. We have to negotiate with Iran. And the alternative of not reaching an agreement, you know what it is? It’s war. Do we really want another war, a war with Iran?”

Senator Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin also endorsed the deal Friday, bringing to 15 the number of Democratic senators who have publicly backed the agreement.

Schumer issued a statement Thursday saying that “after deep study, careful thought and considerable soul-searching, I have decided I must oppose the agreement and will vote yes on a motion of disapproval.”

The White House said Friday it was unfazed by Schumer’s opposition and expressed confidence that the deal would garner enough votes to pass Congress.