The U.S. Senate on Tuesday failed for a second time to advance a resolution disapproving President Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran, and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell signaled plans for a vote on an amendment requiring Iran to recognize Israel’s right to exist and to release U.S. citizens in its custody.
Until Tehran meets those two “simple benchmarks,” McConnell (R-Ky.) said on the Senate floor, Obama must not be allowed to lift sanctions.
He characterized his proposed amendment as a way to test whether Democratic senators really care about Israel and human rights, as they claim to do even while blocking a vote that would let the American people know where their respective senators stand on the nuclear deal.
While he would prefer Democrats to allow an up-or-down vote on the resolution disapproving the deal, McConnell said, “if they’re determined to make that impossible, then at the very least we should be able to provide some protection to Israel, and long-overdue relief to Americans who’ve languished in Iranian custody for years.”
“Democrats,” he charged, “seem to think they can end the discussion by blocking an up-or-down vote, then turn around and pretend they care deeply about Israel and human rights. Well, if they vote again to deny the American people a final vote, they’ll have a chance to test the theory.
“I will file an amendment that would prevent the president from lifting sanctions until Iran meets two simple benchmarks. It must formally recognize Israel’s right to exist, and it must release the American citizens being held in Iranian custody.
“The president has so far resisted linking his deal – a deal that fails to end Iran’s enrichment program, while leaving it as an American-recognized nuclear threshold state – to other aspects of Iran’s conduct. But linkage is appropriate, and in this negotiation would have been wise.”
In the subsequent vote on advancing the GOP-led resolution of disapproval, despite Republican hopes that two or more Democrats would change their stance, 42 again voted no – the same number that did last Thursday. That deprived the majority of the 60 votes needed to move forward.
Like last week, four Democrats opposed to the Iran deal voted with the Republicans – Sens. Chuck Schumer of New York, Robert Menendez of New Jersey, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, and Ben Cardin of Maryland.
The final vote was 56-42, compared to last Thursday’s 58-42 vote. Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), both of whom are running for the GOP presidential nomination, did not vote on Tuesday.
McConnell’s proposed amendment alludes to U.S. citizens Pastor Saeed Abedini, former U.S. Marine Amir Hekmati and Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, all of whom are incarcerated in Iran; and retired FBI agent Bob Levinson, who has been missing in Iran since 2007.
Last May, the Senate voted 90-0 for a resolution calling on Iran immediately to release Abedini, Hekmati and Rezaian, and to cooperate with U.S. to locate and return Levinson. It further stated that “the U.S. government should undertake every effort using every diplomatic tool at its disposal to secure their release.”
The element of McConnell’s proposed amendment relating to Iranian recognition of Israel echoes a measure put forward by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) last spring, when the Senate was considering legislation providing for congressional review of the nuclear deal then being negotiated.
Rubio’s amendment to the so-called Corker-Cardin legislation would have required Tehran to recognize Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) added Rubio’s proposal as a second-degree measure to an amendment of his own, tying sanctions relief to specific steps by Iran, including giving international inspectors full access to suspicious sites.