As Iran and the six world powers prepare for “implementation day” of their nuclear deal, the American House of Representatives on Wednesday approved Republican-backed legislation that would give Congress greater oversight of the landmark nuclear agreement, reports The Associated Press (AP).
Lawmakers voted 191-106 to approve the Iran Terror Finance Transparency Act, spurning a veto threat from President Barack Obama.
However, according to AP, the vote count fell well short of the number needed to override a veto: Speaker Paul Ryan, determined to keep the House on schedule, had the vote gaveled to a close even though 137 lawmakers hadn’t voted.
Faced with frustrated members, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) later “vacated” the vote and scheduled another one for January 26, when House Republicans will almost certainly approve the legislation for a second time, noted AP.
The House bill would bar the removal of certain individuals and foreign financial institutions on a restricted list kept by the Treasury Department until the president certifies to Congress that they were not involved in Iran’s ballistic missiles program or in terrorist activities.
The issue, however, is that all indications are that the deal will be implemented in the coming days, meaning the United States would begin lifting sanctions against Iran and a January 26 vote would come too late.
On Wednesday, Secretary of State John Kerry confirmed that Iran has removed the central vessel of its nuclear reactor at Arak, and added that “implementation day” would take place “likely within the coming days”.
In addition to removing the core of the Arak reactor, Iran has also sent a major shipment of low-enriched uranium materials to Russia as part of its obligations under the deal, a fact which Kerry had hailed as “significant progress”.
Nevertheless, the White House said the Republican bill could cause “the collapse” of the agreement and that the president will reject the legislation if it ever reaches his desk.
Democrats who opposed the bill painted the legislation as a backdoor attempt to scuttle the agreement after Obama last year won enough support to prevent Congress from derailing it. But Iran’s actions have made Democrats uneasy, and they are urging the White House to hold Tehran accountable as promised when the agreement was being crafted, noted AP.
Despite Iran’s recent positive actions, a December 2 report from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) concluded that Iran made a “coordinated” effort to develop nuclear weapons in the past, although the efforts apparently ended at an early stage.
According to the report, most of the dedicated work took place before 2003, though some parts continued until 2009.
The UN watchdog also recently released a report which determined that Iran had violated the terms of its nuclear deal with the West by increasing its stockpile of low-enriched uranium by 460.2 kilograms.
Earlier it was also revealed that Iran had stopped dismantling its centrifuges at the Natanz and Fordow uranium enrichment plants, breaching the nuclear deal that calls for the dismantling.
