Reid's choice to replace him as Senate leader co-sponsors republican bill to undercut WH on Iran

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JNS.org) As the March 31 deadlines approaches for a political framework agreement in the nuclear talks between the P5+1 powers (a group that includes America) and Iran, U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Thursday announced that he is adding his name to the list of cosponsors of legislation that would require Congressional review of a nuclear deal.

The Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015, sponsored by U.S. Sens. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), stipulates that President Barack Obama must submit the text of a nuclear pact to Congress within five days of a deal being reached. The legislation also prohibits the president from suspending, waiving, or reducing Congressional sanctions against Iran for 60 days. Schumer had already publicly supported the Corker-Menendez oversight bill before officially announcing his cosponsorship on Thursday.

“We must do everything to prevent a nuclear Iran and so any potential agreement must prevent Iran’s ability to develop a nuclear weapon,” Schumer said in a statement. “Congress played a lead role in crafting the tough-and-effective sanctions regime that brought Iran to the table, and Congress should have a role on how those sanctions are altered in any final agreement with Iran. That’s why I strongly support this legislation, which will give Congress the ability to weigh in on any potential Iran deal. This issue is far too important—for the United States, for Israel, for the entire Middle East—for Congress not to have any ability to review a nuclear deal with Iran.”

According to the bill, after the 60-day Congressional review period, the president would be required to assess Iran’s compliance with the nuclear deal every 90 days. The legislation’s other cosponsors include Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), John McCain (R-Ariz.), Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Heidi Heitkamp (R-N.D.), Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.), Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), James Risch (R-Idaho), Angus King (I-Maine), Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), Lisa Murkowski (R-Ark.), Dean Heller (R-Nev.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), and Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), and Rand Paul (R-Ky.).

read: http://www.jns.org/news-briefs/2015/3/26/sen-schumer-announces-cosponsorship-of-bill-requiring-congressional-review-of-iran-deal#.VRWTFUbql0c=

...nice bedfellows.

[djean111]

1. But - he has a "D" after his name, so it doesn't matter. Right?

[geek tragedy]

2. Funny thing that, there probably won't be a text of a deal until June nt

[Jefferson23]

3. Horrific lack of judgement and nice way to ruin an opportunity for Obama to shift away from

decades of neocon foreign policies.

Sickening.

[Jefferson23]

4. Rouhani writes to world leaders ahead of talks deadline

3/27/2015

Iran's president has appealed to global leaders including US President Barack Obama, as negotiators raced against the clock to agree the outlines of a deal on Iran's nuclear programme.

Hassan Rouhani wrote to Obama on Thursday, US officials confirmed, as well as to the leaders of the five other powers heading efforts to resolve the 12-year standoff.

The content of the letters was not known. But Rouhani, whose 2013 election led to the current diplomatic push, also phoned the leaders of Russia, China, Britain and France, his office said.

"We are acting in the national and international interest and we should not lose this exceptional opportunity," Rouhani told British Prime Minister David Cameron by phone, the presidency said.

"Hope was expressed for success at the new round of talks in Lausanne," the Kremlin said after Rouhani spoke to President Vladimir Putin, while noting with "satisfaction" the progress made.

Francois Hollande, "insisting on Iran's legitimate right to use peaceful nuclear power, insisted on the need to work towards a lasting, robust and verifiable agreement," the French presidency said.

Lifting sanctions

Highlighting the difficulties of talks that resumed in Switzerland on Thursday between US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Iranian counterpart Mohammed Mohammad Javad Zarif, Rouhani also said Iran wants all sanctions lifted.

"The peaceful character of [Iran's] nuclear activities and the necessity to annul all the unjust sanctions can lead us to a final deal," Rouhani's office quoted him as telling Cameron.

The six powers negotiating with Iran - five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany - are, however, insisting that sanctions will only be suspended, not lifted, to enable them to be quickly put back in place if Tehran violates the deal.

And the US Senate voted unanimously on Thursday to support a non-binding measure to impose new economic sanctions on Iran should it violate terms of any nuclear deal reached.

Kerry's talks in Lausanne with Zarif and officials from the powers are aimed at agreeing the outlines of a nuclear deal by March 31 after two missed deadlines in 2014.

The two men met for more than four hours on Thursday, and their political directors resumed talks later in the evening.

"It's going well, we're working, we're meeting," Kerry said.

A comprehensive deal, meant to be finalised by June 30, would see Iran downsize its nuclear programme to ensure that any covert dash for an atomic weapon would be all but impossible.

Iran's nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi said that he was "on the whole optimistic" about the talks, Agence France-Press news agency reported.

But he warned "there are those who have an interest in more troubles and not dealing with this question have not been inactive. They are trying to make sure there is no deal."

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/03/rouhani-writes-world-leaders-talks-deadline-150327091458894.html

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5. »

[madokie]

6. Chuck Schumer

is the mo'fo that gave us fox. He's the bastard who slipped into a bill that was being voted on the next morning a provision that allowed a non American to own a news organization, that gave rupert murdock natural citizenship or some such shit. I've said this before and someone here found a reference to what I'm saying but the record has been pretty much scrubbed. Schumer is not our friend and never has been. Some of these bastards forget that some of us have a memory bank that works, mine does.
BT

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

7. But..but..he's a Party Loyalist....occasionally.