WASHINGTON -- Republicans on Wednesday challenged a nuclear deal with Iran as the White House dispatched a Cabinet-level lobbying team to build support for the agreement to ease sanctions in exchange for limits on that nation's nuclear program.
There were scattered Democratic concerns, as well, after classified briefings from Secretary of State John Kerry and other officials from President Barack Obama's administration.
According to lawmakers, Kerry said the international coalition behind existing economic and military sanctions will collapse no matter what Congress decides, an assessment that touched a Republican sore spot.
Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the administration had "given up our veto at the U.N. on Monday," when the United Nations Security Council voted unanimously to lift international sanctions.
Kerry was joined Wednesday by Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew. All three are to testify in an open hearing today before the Foreign Relations Committee.
Republicans made plain their skepticism before Kerry, Moniz and Lew arrived for Wednesday's meeting.
"No serious person truly believes" that the United States faces a choice between implementing the agreement and going to war with Iran, said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., rebutting statements from Obama.
Also at the Capitol, Israeli Ambassador Ron Dermer met privately with several House Republicans.
One participant in the meeting, Rep. Dave Brat of Virginia, said the diplomat's main point had been that one should "pay less attention to all the details" like nuclear centrifuges and more attention to "who's on the other side of the ethical debate, and that is Iran." Israel views a nuclear armed Iran as an existential threat.
Later Wednesday, thousands of protesters packed into New York's Times Square to demand that Congress vote down the deal. The event consisted mainly of pro-Israel supporters, though organizers said it represented Americans of all faiths and political convictions.
Wednesday's briefing with Kerry and others marked the beginning of the administration's formal attempt to secure enough votes to sustain a presidential veto of any Republican-crafted legislation that would torpedo the nuclear deal.
The deal does not need congressional approval to take effect, but some Republicans have hinted they will try to sink it with legislation that would block Obama from lifting sanctions that lawmakers previously put in place.
The president has vowed to veto any such bill, and it would take a two-thirds majority in each house of the Republican-controlled Congress to override him.
As a result, the prospect is for a two-month campaign by the administration to find at least 34 senators or 146 House members to prevent a veto override. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California, an announced supporter of the deal, has expressed optimism that the White House can prevail.
Rep. Steve Israel, D-N.Y., said he thought that members who went into Wednesday's briefing opposing or supporting the nuclear deal generally left with their opinions unchanged.
Israel, who said he was among the undecided lawmakers, said no information emerged during the meeting that provided an "epiphany."
Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., said a number of lawmakers commented that Kerry was conducting himself in a "condescending" manner during the meeting, a view that was echoed by Rep. Dan Lipinski, D-Ill.
"I would appreciate if the secretary really showed a little more respect for members of Congress," Lipinski said.
After the briefing, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a Republican presidential candidate, urged colleagues to reject the Iran agreement and hold out for a better one.
"There is a better deal awaiting the world and the United States," Graham said. "This is the best deal President Barack Obama could get because he is so weak in the eyes of our enemies."
Cotton seeks details
Among the Republicans who oppose the deal, Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kan., complained Wednesday about side arrangements made between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency.
He quoted Kerry as saying the U.S. is just going to have to "trust" the agency and added, "I just find that completely unacceptable, and I don't see how a member of Congress can vote for an agreement not knowing the full scope of what the agreement actually is."
The two side deals, which Pompeo and Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., learned about during a trip to the agency headquarters in Vienna on Saturday, address inspection of the Parchin military complex and how the International Atomic Energy Agency and Iran will handle possible military dimensions of Iran's nuclear program.
In a statement issued Monday, Pompeo and Cotton said they had been told the deals "will remain secret, and will not be shared with other nations, with Congress or with the public."
Late Wednesday, Cotton and Pompeo joined McConnell and House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, in a letter to Obama asking for details of the deals.
The letter writers said information about the arrangements should have been sent for congressional review as was required by the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act, the legislation passed to give the House and Senate a vote on the broader nuclear deal with Iran.
"Failure to produce these two side agreements leaves Congress blind on critical information regarding Iran's potential path to being a nuclear power and will have detrimental consequences for the ability of members to assess the [agreement]," the letter states.
National security adviser Susan Rice has acknowledged the agreements between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency exist and said the administration is planning to discuss them during classified briefings on Capitol Hill.
Verification doubts
Meanwhile, the Obama administration's claim that the nuclear accord provides for airtight verification procedures was being challenged by nuclear experts with long experience in monitoring Tehran's program.
Moniz, the energy secretary, has said Iran would not be able to hide traces of illicit nuclear work before inspectors gained access to a suspicious site. But several experts, including a former high-ranking official at the International Atomic Energy Agency, said a provision that gives Iran up to 24 days to grant access to inspectors might enable it to escape detection.
Olli Heinonen, a former deputy director of the agency, said that while "it is clear that a facility of sizable scale cannot simply be erased in three weeks' time without leaving traces," the more likely risk is that the Iranians would pursue smaller-scale nuclear work, such as manufacturing uranium components for a nuclear weapon.
David Albright, the president of the Institute for Science and International Security and a former weapons inspector in Iraq, also said that three weeks might be ample time for the Iranians to dispose of the evidence of prohibited nuclear work. Among the possibilities, he said, were experiments with high explosives that could be used to trigger a nuclear weapon or the construction of a small plant to make centrifuges.
"If it is on a small scale, they may be able to clear it out in 24 days," Albright said. "They are practiced at cheating. You can't count on them to make a mistake."
Verification and enforcement of the deal has also been a worry among U.S. allies in the Middle East, leading Defense Secretary Ashton Carter to visit the region to shore up support for the deal.
On Wednesday, Saudi King Salman and his defense minister "reiterated their support" for the deal while expressing reservations about how Iran's compliance will be verified and how sanctions could "snap back" in place if violations are discovered, Carter said.
Saudi Arabia, Iran's leading regional rival, and other Sunni Persian Gulf states are concerned that Shiite Iran may become more assertive in the region after sanctions are lifted under the nuclear pact.
Carter said U.S. and Saudi officials discussed ways to improve military cooperation, including in counterterrorism, the use of special forces, maritime security, cybersecurity and better-integrated air and missile defenses.
American captives
Another source of contention over the nuclear deal has been the Obama administration's failure to use it as a bargaining tool to gain the release of Americans who are being held in Iran.
U.S. officials said they raised the issue of captive Americans with Iran but they also insisted upon keeping the nuclear talks separate from discussions of U.S. prisoners in Iran in case the negotiations faltered.
On Wednesday, an editor and lawyers for The Washington Post said the newspaper has filed an urgent petition with the United Nations in the hopes that the institution will pressure Iran to release journalist Jason Rezaian.
The announcement came on the one-year anniversary of the arrest of Rezaian and his Iranian wife, who was later released. Rezaian, the Post's bureau chief, remains in prison under charges of espionage and distributing propaganda.
The Post's lawyers and his family have denied the allegations and said Iran has no credible evidence to keep holding him. Rezaian's supporters had hoped the Iran talks would pave the way for his release.
In the Iranian capital, Tehran, Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Wednesday that cases of "imprisoned citizens" were discussed with their American counterparts during the nuclear talks. He said "humanitarian" reasons had motivated the discussion, but did not elaborate.
It was the first confirmation by the Iranians of any talks that may have involved the fate of Rezaian and other U.S. prisoners in Iran: former U.S. Marine Amir Hekmati, Christian pastor Saeed Abedini and retired FBI agent Robert Levinson.
Information for this article was contributed by David Espo, Deb Riechmann, Matthew Lee, Josh Lederman, Alan Fram, Laurie Kellman, Matthew Daly, Erica Werner, Donna Cassata, Anne Flaherty, Verena Dobnik and Edith M. Lederer of The Associated Press; by Billy House, David Lerman, Glen Carey and Rachel Adams-Heard of Bloomberg News; by Michael R. Gordon of The New York Times; and by Sarah D. Wire of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
A Section on 07/23/2015