President Obama just landed a major victory when Democratic Sen. Barbara Mikulski declared that she would support Obama and the Iran nuclear deal, giving the White House enough votes to avoid Republicans from stopping the agreement.
Obama needed at least 34 votes in order to allow the Iran nuclear deal to go through because the Constitution requires 34 senators to vote in order to sustain a veto. This will allow Obama to veto the Republican’s vote to most likely try and stop the Iran nuclear deal that Obama has in place, according to CNN.
Of course, the Republican’s won’t let Obama or his nuclear deal win that easily; they are hoping to get the 41 votes needed to filibuster the bill and stop it from getting to a final vote in the Senate. President Obama’s plan with the Iran nuclear deal is to attempt to curb Iran’s nuclear weapons program. Secretary of State John Kerry is hoping that the administration will continue to prevail and get more than 34 votes.
“Thirty-four votes are obviously enough votes for the president’s veto to be upheld. That is not satisfactory for us. We do want to try to go further. We’ll continue to persuade.”
In April, Iran, the United States, Russia, Britain, France, China, and Germany all made a tentative deal that would hopefully stop or curb the Islamic republic’s ability to produce a nuclear weapon, according to the Washington Post . These talks don’t mean Iran is 100 percent on board with stopping its nuclear weapon making, but it also reduces a military escalating in the Middle East.
Obama said, “This deal offers an opportunity to move in a new direction. We should seize it.”
The Iran nuclear deal mainly focuses on limiting Iran’s capability to produce and control the fissile material needed to build a nuclear weapon. With the talks in April, Iran will cut its number of centrifuges — a device used to enrich uranium gas — from 19,000 to 6,000, and its stockpile of enriched uranium will be lowered from 10,000 kilograms to 300.
Opponents of Obama and the Iran nuclear deal said that the billions of dollars in sanction relief Iran will receive will help fund terrorism and other military operations that will contribute to an unstable Middle East.
Kerry said that the Iran nuclear deal would make the world safer, including Israel and the Gulf states that are expressing concerns in the Iran nuclear deal because it will hinder Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, instead of allowing them a pathway to making a bomb.
Kerry adds, “Some may find its way to some bad or nefarious activity, but the activities that we have objected to…are not just fueled by money. Much of the terrorism that has been supported in the region has been done on the cheap, not because of money. I don’t believe that the money released by this… is going to be determinative in any way regarding the security of the region.”
[Image by Ethan Miler/ Getty Images]
