WITHOUT A DEAL, WE RISK WAR
Bam: No better plan Bibi steps up call for Congress nix
WASHINGTON — President Obama drew a line in the sand Wednesday challenging critics of his historic nuclear deal with Iran to offer alternatives instead of just shooting it down out of hand.
“Either the issue of Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon is resolved diplomatically through a negotiation or it’s resolved through force, through war,” Obama said during a wide-ranging news conference at the White House.
Taking questions from reporters for more than an hour, the President put up a rousing defense of his signature foreign policy initiative and hammered home the argument that the accord will “cut off every single one of Iran’s pathways” to developing nuclear weapons “for at least a decade.”
“We don’t have diplomatic leverage to eliminate every vestige of a peaceful nuclear program in Iran. What we do have is the leverage to make sure they don’t have a weapon. That’s exactly what we’ve done,” he said.
“Without a deal, there would be no limits (on the nuclear program),” Obama said. “Without a deal, those inspections go away. “Without a deal, we risk war.” Citing a barrage of criticism by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and congressional Republicans, Obama called their claims “a lot of talking points.”
“None of them have presented to me or the American people a better alternative,” he said.
Netanyahu, backed by an array of pro-Israeli groups, including the influential American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which weighed in against the deal for the first time Wednesday, urged members of Congress to reject it.
“This deal poses a great danger to Israel. I believe it poses a great danger to America and the world,” Netanyahu said on NBC News Wednesday, complaining that the agreement would leave Iran the ability to develop a bomb within a year.
And in an address earlier to the Israeli parliament, he repeated his claim that the country is not bound by the agreement.
“We will reserve our right to defend ourselves against all of our enemies. We have strength, and it is great and mighty,” Netanyahu said.
In Iran, which aired Obama’s comments Tuesday after the accord was reached live on state TV, the President’s news conference Wednesday remained off the air.
But after Tuesday’s announcement, Iranians cheered and honked their vehicles’ horns in celebration of the landmark agreement in Tehran, where Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif called the pact a “win-win” for the countries involved.
The onslaught of opposition left the White House scrambling to bolster support from Democrats it needs to ensure Congress cannot override the veto Obama has promised of any bill blocking the agreement.
A veto override requires twothirds of votes in each chamber of Congress. More than enough Democratic senators remained undecided Wednesday to create the chance Republicans can pick up 13 Democrats they would need to overcome an Obama veto.
Lawmakers from New York are expected to play key roles.
Sen. Chuck Schumer, an influential voice on the deal and the thirdranking Democrat in the Senate, said he has not taken a position and was still studying the complex agreement.
Bronx Rep. Eliot Engel, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said that he is “deeply concerned” by aspects of the deal. Rep. Steve Israel (D-L.I.) said Wednesday that his concerns about the 109-page agreement “escalated as a result” of reading it Tuesday night.
“I read the joint comprehensive plan of action last night, over 100 pages,” Israel said. “I’ll be honest, I was skeptical going in. There is nothing that I read last night that alleviates my skepticism.”
While the agreement gives inspectors from the UN International Atomic Energy Agency full-time access to Iran’s declared sites for producing nuclear energy, it leaves inspectors waiting 24 days to visit other sites where they may suspect nuclear work is occurring.
“That’s a far cry from what I understood to be anywhere, anytime,” Israel said.
The White House also worked Wednesday to address concern among many Democrats about a late concession in which U.S. negotiators agreed to end a UN embargo on arms sales to Iran in five years and end ballistic missiles sanctions in eight years.
“I don’t know why we are doing that,” Israel said.
Obama argued that winning delays of five and eight years on the arms and missile embargo repre-
sented a concession by the Iranians, who wanted an immediate end to the limits.
Obama said the arms embargo is just one of many “multilateral agreements that give us authority to interdict arms shipments from Iran.”
He downplayed potential delays in inspectors visiting suspicious sites in Iran.
“The nature of nuclear programs and facilities is such (that) this is not something you hide in a closet,” he said. “This is not something you put on a dolly and kind of wheel off somewhere.”
He noted nuclear material leaves identifiable traces, and indicated the U.S. will also use spying capability to monitor locations.
“If we identify an undeclared site that we’re suspicious about, we’re going to be keeping eyes on it,” he said.
Earlier, the White House dispatched Vice President Biden to Capitol Hill to sell the plan. Biden met with the House Democratic Caucus.
“I’m here to answer questions and explain what the deal is, and I’m confident they’ll like it when they understand it all,” Biden told reporters, flanked by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).
“We’re going to be all right,” Biden said.
Under the terms of the agreement, Iran will be prevented from producing enough nuclear material for a weapon for at least 10 years and must submit its nuclear facilities to a new round of inspections.
In return, the U.S. and other world powers would lift crippling sanctions on the isolated country, which could provide up to $150 billion in relief, as overseas assets become unfrozen and a European oil embargo softens or ends.