Think the Iran nuclear talks are taking forever? Wait until Congress sees a deal

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jul/07/iran-nuclear-deal-us-congress-lobbying

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Washington lobbyists are bracing themselves for a protracted summer fight over the Iran nuclear deal after the latest delay in international negotiations looks certain to trigger a longer-than-anticipated congressional review process.

The latest three-day extension of the nuclear talks in Vienna takes the deadline for completing the final deal beyond a 10 July cut-off date established by US lawmakers to ensure they were able to review it without disrupting their August recess.

The detail of legislation passed in May means that any deal that reaches Congress between 10 July and 7 September is subject to a 60-day review period by lawmakers rather than the faster 30-day treatment it would receive if it landed outside the summer months.

The White House remains confident it can persuade enough lawmakers to back what its negotiators come up with regardless of the length of the review period, but the added time is prompting both opponents and supporters of the deal to step up their lobbying efforts in anticipation of intense debate in Washington over whether it does enough to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

“We expect millions of dollars will be spent on both sides of this issue and are now girded for a more extended fight: we are ready for that,” said Dylan Williams, vice president of government affairs at J-Street, a liberal US group that backs the outline deal.

“I think the extended review period will not have an impact on public support and congressional support for a deal, but it certainly provides more time for opponents of the deal to try to peel away congressional support,” he told the Guardian.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac), a larger rival lobby group that fears the deal will not be strict enough, has also stepped up its warnings that the delayed negotiations may lead to unacceptable compromises.

“A nuclear agreement with Iran that fails to close off all Iranian pathways to a bomb will have devastating consequences for the region and shatter the nuclear nonproliferation regime,” says its statement on the talks.

“The United States should continue to employ diplomacy to reach an agreement that blocks Iran’s nuclear quest, but should not accept a deal that falls short of American objectives.”

Aipac also points to strong support from many Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill for its concerns about the current direction of talks.

The White House played down the implications of giving such critics longer to rally opposition, arguing the delay was simply because it was also “focused on the quality of a potential deal”.

“Just because we may be in a period where this agreement is subject to a 60-day review by Congress, that actually reflects the more than 30-day August recess Congress will take ... It may require additional delay but it doesn’t necessarily ensure additional scrutiny,” Obama spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters on Tuesday.

“[Nevertheless] we welcome additional scrutiny of the deal; if we are able to reach one, it will be one we will be confident is clearly in our best interests [and] clearly shuts down every pathway that Iran has to a nuclear weapon.

“The president will not accept any sort of agreement that falls short of the political commitments that were made back in April,” he added.

For now, more moderate Republicans say they remain open-minded and will decide whether to support the final deal when they see what is in it.

“I would just hope that they would take their time and finish this in the best way that they can, even though we have already gone down a bad track,” said Senate foreign affairs chairman Bob Corker in an interview on Sunday.

The option of permanently blocking a deal in Congress is also complicated by the terms of the oversight process agreed by Corker in April, which require two-thirds of both the Senate and House to overturn a White House veto.

For this reason, supporters of the Iran talks in Washington remain confident they can withstand opposition in Congress no matter how long it goes on.

“We feel the facts sell themselves if people are aware of them,” said J-Street’s Williams.