Trump's Iran ultimatum puts pressure on Hill negotiations

“I think we need to pass something that will put our country in a better position as it relates to what I think is just a horrible deal,” Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, a Republican member of the Foreign Relations Committee, told the Washington Examiner.

“Members of Congress are negotiating, in good faith, modest and reasonable revisions to [the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act] that would allow him to be more comfortable with the agreement,” Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., another member of the foreign policy panel, told Capitol Hill reporters on Thursday.

Trump eschewed a modest tone in his Friday message to Congress. “Any bill I sign must include four critical components,” he said.

Those provisions include the broader access for international monitors seeking to inspect Iran’s nuclear program, in perpetuity, and a mandate to impose “severe” sanctions on Iran’s ballistic missile program. “If Iran does not comply with any of these provisions, American nuclear sanctions would automatically resume,” he said.

“At the president’s request, I have been working with his national security team and a number of my Senate colleagues on both sides of the aisle on a way to address the flaws in the agreement without violating U.S. commitments,” the Tennessee Republican said.

“We have made significant progress over the past few months, and as I told the president when he called earlier today, we will continue working hard to achieve our shared goal: a better deal for America that will stand the test of time and actually prevent a nuclear-armed Iran.”

But his Democratic counterpart on the committee expressed more alarm that Trump would undermine the talks.

“Instead of leading an international negotiation on the agreement himself, however, the president’s statement making threats and dictating final terms of potential negotiations with Congress and Europe makes it more challenging to achieve this objective,” said Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md.

END