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Republican effort to block Iran nuclear deal faces Senate day of decision Republican-led attempt to block Iran deal fails in Senate
(about 3 hours later)
The US Senate will vote on Thursday on Barack Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran, with Democrats poised to prevent Republican efforts to block the agreement. Republican efforts to scuttle Barack Obama’s nuclear accord with Iran were blocked by Democrats in the United States Senate on Thursday, paving the way for the president to implement the deal struck between Tehran and six world powers in July.
Related: Iran nuclear deal showdown nears end as US Senate vote looms – live updates
Senate Democrats filibustered a procedural vote on a measure that would have registered formal disapproval of the Iran deal, in effect stopping it in its tracks. The Senate voted 58-42, short of a required 60-vote threshold, on whether to end debate on the Iran deal, thus failing to even reach an up-or-down vote on the disapproval resolution itself.
The vote marked a major victory for Obama, after months of intense lobbying by his administration geared at persuading Democrats to stand with the president on a legacy-defining issue. Although congressional Democrats rallied sufficient support last month to sustain Obama’s veto – should it come to that point – it only became apparent this week that Senate Democrats had the votes they needed to filibuster the resolution and avoid the need for a veto by the president.
Related: Iran deal reaches Congress: what happens next and why it mattersRelated: Iran deal reaches Congress: what happens next and why it matters
Senators will hold a procedural vote on a resolution of disapproval of the deal, which will require 60 votes to advance. Republicans are unanimously opposed to the accord struck by Iran and six world powers in July, leaving Democrats to determine the outcome. Republicans, who uniformly oppose the deal, had nothing but scathing words to offer toward the deal.
Democrats are expected to filibuster the resolution, thereby defeating it, an outcome which would mark a major victory for the Obama administration on a legacy-defining issue for the president. “I want to be recorded for history’s purposes, if nothing else, to say those of us who oppose this deal understood where it would lead, and we are making a terrible mistake,” Florida senator Marco Rubio, a Republican presidential candidate who has vowed to reverse the deal if elected in 2016, said on the Senate floor ahead of the vote.
Forty-two Senate Democrats have publicly backed the agreement, with just a handful of defections.
In a Senate floor speech on Thursday Mitch McConnell, the Republican majority leader, said a Democratic filibuster of the motion of disapproval would amount to a “tragedy”. Forty-two Senate Democrats publicly backed the agreement, with just a handful of defections.
“I know some of our colleagues are currently under immense pressure to shut down the voice of the people,” said McConnell, from Kentucky. “But I ask colleagues to reflect on the gravely serious nature of the issue before us.” Thursday’s vote was the product of an agreement reached by Senate in May to first undergo a 60-day review period on the accord and then hold a vote that would register either approval or disapproval of the deal. Republicans complained on Thursday that by filibustering the procedural vote, Democrats were not only preventing a final vote on the resolution but also violating the terms of that agreement.
Republican leaders in the House of Representatives were instead eyeing a vote on a motion of approval, in an attempt to force Democrats to put their support for the agreement to a vote. “Democratic senators just voted to filibuster and block the American people from even having a real vote on one of the most consequential foreign policy issues of our time,” Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate majority leader, said in a floor speech after the vote. “This is a deal which was designed to go around Congress and the American people from the very start.”
McConnell, a senator from Kentucky, said he would bring the procedural vote back up in the future, even as Democrats said the outcome would remain the same.
Republican leaders in the House of Representatives were eyeing a vote on a motion of approval, in an attempt to force Democrats to put their support for the agreement to a vote.
The strategy would be “about holding every member accountable for their vote”, the House speaker, John Boehner, told reporters.The strategy would be “about holding every member accountable for their vote”, the House speaker, John Boehner, told reporters.
Boehner, a Republican from Ohio, said the House would use “every tool at our disposal to stop, slow and delay this agreement from being fully implemented”.Boehner, a Republican from Ohio, said the House would use “every tool at our disposal to stop, slow and delay this agreement from being fully implemented”.
“This debate is far from over,” he said, “and frankly it’s just beginning.”“This debate is far from over,” he said, “and frankly it’s just beginning.”
The July deal struck between Iran and six world powers provides Tehran relief from crippling economic sanctions in exchange for limits on its nuclear program.The July deal struck between Iran and six world powers provides Tehran relief from crippling economic sanctions in exchange for limits on its nuclear program.
Republicans complain the deal does not do away with the program altogether, fails to provide for spot inspections of nuclear sites or force Iran to end support for militant groups like Hamas.Republicans complain the deal does not do away with the program altogether, fails to provide for spot inspections of nuclear sites or force Iran to end support for militant groups like Hamas.