Sen Graham to Israel Hayom: Senate will block bad Iran deal

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham: Senate has right and duty to examine any nuclear deal reached with Iran • Graham: Majority of senators in both parties oppose a deal that would permit Iran to enrich uranium.

By Boaz Bismuth, Eli Leon, Shlomo Cesana and Israel Hayom Staff

The U.S. Senate has the right and duty to examine any nuclear deal reached with Iran, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, of South Carolina, told Israel Hayom. Graham vowed that the Senate would block a “bad deal” with Iran.

In Graham’s view, any agreement that permits Iran to enrich uranium would constitute a “bad deal” unacceptable to the Senate.

“Today, there are new bosses in Washington,” Graham, who was reelected to a third term in the Senate on Tuesday, said. “The biggest losers, after the midterm elections, are Hamas, Hezbollah and the Iranian nuclear program.”

Graham said he intends to submit a bill in January to the new Senate majority leader, expected to be Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell, that would require President Barack Obama to allow the Senate to review any agreement with Iran on the nuclear issue.

“With Iran, we do not want to end up getting the same result we got with North Korea, which ultimately, despite the negotiations and the agreements, became a nuclear power,” Graham said. “It is very important that the Senate examine the agreement [with Iran]. Today, a majority of senators from both parties oppose the idea that Iran will enrich uranium.”

So what agreement would you accept?

“If the agreement is good for the U.S., Israel and other U.S. partners and if it protects the national security of the U.S. — then we will support it. However, if the agreement is bad, then we will oppose it, and I will personally make sure it does not pass.”

But The New York Times revealed before the midterm elections that Obama plans to bypass Congress on the Iran nuclear issue.

“The U.S. Senate has not only the right, but also the duty, to examine the agreement. It is Congress which voted for the sanctions against Iran and it is Congress which is supposed to cancel them, if needed. I find it strange that the president said it was necessary to go to Congress regarding action in Syria and Iraq, but does not need Congress in the case of an agreement with Iran. I assure you that the Senate intends to engage in a tough fight to bring the agreement before us. The regime of the ayatollahs is the big loser of the midterm elections.”

Regarding the dangers that would be posed by a bad nuclear agreement with Iran, Graham said, “One must understand that a bad deal with Iran could change the face of the world. I don’t think there is a single Israel who could sleep well at night knowing that Iran is capable of developing a nuclear bomb.”

Graham also expressed concern that the Obama administration views a nuclear agreement with Iran as a potential legacy achievement.

Graham, a member of the Senate Committee on Appropriations, said he recently told the U.N. secretary-general that the U.S. would halt funding for the U.N. Human Rights Council, given that the body’s sole purpose is to isolate Israel. “I don’t think American taxpayers want to help [the Human Rights Council] with this agenda,” Graham said.

Meanwhile, on Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met in Muscat, Oman with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and former EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton (the representative of the six world powers negotiating with Iran) in a bid to make progress in the negotiations ahead of the Nov. 24 deadline for a final nuclear agreement.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday that a “bad deal” with Iran “would endanger the entire world.”

“Better no deal than a bad deal that leaves Iran with a capacity to enrich uranium for a nuclear bomb,” Netanyahu said.

Regarding the Islamic State group, Netanyahu said, “I think the battle against ISIS should not come at the expense of the efforts to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Both of them should be pursued independently and not linked to one another.”

In Iran over the weekend, it was anti-Israel vitriol as usual. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei tweeted, “This barbaric, wolflike & infanticidal regime of #Israel which spares no crime has no cure but to be annihilated.”