A briefing from
ambassadors proves to be a big help in selling the controversial agreement.
By Sam Stein
WASHINGTON - Proponents of a nuclear deal with Iran got a boost
Tuesday when a trio of on-the-fence Democratic senators announced they would
support the agreement when it comes up for a vote in September.
What helped tip the scales for Sens. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Barbara
Boxer (D-Calif.) and Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) was not a persuasive speech from
President Barack Obama, the meticulous testimony of Secretary of State John
Kerry, or the nuclear physics insights of the Beethoven-haired Department of
Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz. It was a briefing held earlier in the day by
foreign officials from other countries party to the deal.
At roughly 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday in the capital, ambassadors to
the United States from the P5+1 nations (England, France, Russia, China,
Germany) met with roughly 30 senators to discuss the contours of the deal.
According to multiple Senate sources, all of whom would only speak on condition
of anonymity, the presentation proved surprisingly convincing. The ambassadors
fielded a variety of questions. But the conversation lingered largely on a
hypothetical: What would happen if the agreement fell through?
According to one Senate Democratic aide, the ambassadors were
emphatic that this would amount to a forfeiture of a successful diplomatic
endgame.
"They said international sanctions were aimed at getting Iran
to the table, and if we fritter away this chance, you couldn’t keep that
coalition of support," said the aide. "Frankly, there are a lot of
countries out there that want to buy Iranian oil."
Said another aide, summarizing what was relayed at the meeting:
"These countries will not come together again in search for the best deal.
This is the best deal."
The Obama administration has made similar arguments in its
lobbying campaign to support the Iran deal. But there was a different type of
persuasion, as it came from other P5+1 members, according to another Democratic
Senate aide. For lawmakers, it was a veritable from-the-horse's-mouth confirmation
of their theories and suspicions. Boxer specifically cited the presentation in
announcing that she would support the deal.
“It was very important to
hear from them that they believed if we walked away, it would play right into
the hands of the hard-liners in Iran, Iran would build a nuclear weapon, they’d
have lots of money from everybody else but America, and it’d be a very
dangerous situation,” she told the Los Angeles
Times.
But while news was good for supporters of the Iran nuclear deal in
the Senate, setbacks were experienced in the House. Reps. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.),
Ted Deutch (D-Penn.) and Steve Israel (D-N.Y.) all announced their opposition,
arguing that the deal would prove ineffective in curbing Iran's nuclear program
and would funnel money toward its terrorist-sponsoring activities. Early
reports suggested Israel would proactively try to convince his fellow House
Democrats to join him. But a spokesperson for the congressman told The
Huffington Post, "He won’t be whipping but he will be expressing his
opposition."
The flurry of activity foreshadowed what promises to be a
high-drama August recess. Already, Democratic leadership in each chamber has
encouraged members to come out one way or the other on the deal before leaving
town to avoid having a target on their backs from proponents and critics. But
22 of those members, including the second-ranking Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), are
currently in Israel on a trip sponsored by the American Israel Education
Foundation, an AIPAC affiliated-group. There, they will likely meet with
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, arguably the most outspoken critic
of the nuclear deal with Iran.
A senior House Democratic
aide said none of the members who came out in opposition on Tuesday were
surprising defections. And though roughly $11 million has already
been spent in an ad campaign trying to torpedo the deal (with
millions more to come), backers of the deal continued to exude confidence that
they would have the votes to sustain a presidential veto of a bill that
effectively kills the nuclear deal.
The Obama administration, for its part, plans to continue what can
only be described as a flood-the-zone lobbying campaign in hopes of bolstering
the ranks. Another Senate briefing is scheduled for Wednesday with one of the
deal's negotiators, Wendy Sherman. A separate briefing is scheduled for Senate
Foreign Relations Committee members with Yukiya Amano, the director of the
International Atomic Energy Agency, which will lead the Iran nuclear program
monitoring should the deal stay intact. On Tuesday, the president, along with
Vice President Joe Biden, United States National Security Advisor Susan
Rice and top foreign policy aide Ben Rhodes met with American Jewish community
leaders at the White House. According to a source briefed on the exchange, the
president did most of the talking, and the private case he made mirrored the
public one.
"He went through it in a very lawyerly and detailed fashion
and made his case and then went through the alternatives and refuted
them," said the source. "Obviously he didn't convert the opponents in
the room, but he forced the opponents to rethink the manner of their
opposition."
The big press will come in
a speech from Obama at American University, the site of John F. Kennedy's “Strategy for Peace”
speech 52 years ago calling for a nuclear test ban treaty with the Soviet
Union. According to a White House official, Obama will use the occasion to
"frame the congressional decision about whether to block the
implementation of a deal that prevents Iran from getting a nuclear weapon as
the most consequential foreign policy debate since the decision to go to war in
Iraq."
Hill aides said they had not seen this type of arm-twisting and
bully-pulpit use since the selling of Obamacare back in 2010 - which makes it
all the more peculiar that it was five foreign officials that proved so
consequential on Tuesday. Asked why more Democratic lawmakers didn't buy the
concept that foreign policy was a prerogative best left to the president, the
top House aide replied: "Believe it or not, members of Congress believe
they are omnipotent, all-powerful. They believe they should weigh in on
everything. So that’s not a persuasive argument."
With reporting by Jessica
Schulberg.
