Democrat rejects Iran deal

White House still hopes to prevent Senate vote on it

WASHINGTON -- The White House's goal for stopping a congressional challenge to the Iran nuclear deal and sparing President Barack Obama from using a veto suffered a setback Friday when a key Senate Democrat announced his opposition.

The setback came in the announcement from Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, that he opposes the deal. Cardin's announcement came moments after Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., announced he would back the deal.

The announcements don't affect the ultimate outcome for the international deal to limit Iran's nuclear program in exchange for relief from economic sanctions.

Earlier this week the White House clinched the necessary Senate votes to ensure that even if Obama ends up having to veto a disapproval resolution set for a vote next week, his veto would be upheld.

But with those votes in hand and more piling up, the White House and congressional supporters of the deal had begun aiming for a more ambitious goal: enough votes to bottle up the disapproval resolution in the Senate with a filibuster, preventing it from even coming to a final vote.

That goal remains in reach, with Bennet's backing of the deal putting supporters just three votes shy of the 41 they would need to filibuster the resolution and block it from passing.

Cardin revealed his opposition in an opinion piece in The Washington Post.

"This is a close call, but after a lengthy review, I will vote to disapprove the deal," Cardin wrote. The agreement "legitimizes Iran's nuclear program. After 10 to 15 years, it would leave Iran with the option to produce enough enriched fuel for a nuclear weapon in a short time," he wrote.

Cardin made his announcement as Obama met at the White House with King Salman of Saudi Arabia, in part to offer assurances that the deal signed by the U.S., Iran, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, China and Russia comes with the necessary resources to help check Iran's regional ambitions.

With all but a handful of Senate Democrats already stating their positions -- and only two opposed to the deal -- Cardin was a critical outstanding vote. In addition to serving on the Foreign Relations Committee, he was an author of legislation providing for congressional review of the Iran deal. As a leading Jewish Democrat, he was also under strong pressure from segments of the Jewish community to turn down the deal, which is opposed by Israel.

Bennet, who is up for re-election next year, told The Denver Post the agreement is flawed but represents an important step toward the objectives of preventing Iran from attaining a nuclear weapon, ensuring Israel's security and avoiding war in the Middle East.

Only five Democrats have yet to announce where they stand: Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Maria Cantwell of Washington, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Ron Wyden of Oregon and Gary Peters of Michigan.

The other two senators opposing the deal are Bob Menendez of New Jersey and Chuck Schumer of New York.

Cardin's opposition lent ammunition to Republican opponents of the deal, who say it makes too many concessions to Iran.

"The fact that the two Democrats who have spent the most time in understanding the details and impact of this deal do not support it speaks volumes," said Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., chairman of the Foreign Relations panel and Cardin's partner in authoring the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act.

Information for this article was contributed by Kevin Freking of The Associated Press.

A Section on 09/05/2015

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