In a unanimous vote today that surprised absolutely no one, the U.N. Security Council endorsed President Obama’s Iran nuclear weapons agreement even before Congress votes on the deal.
While the President argues that the implementation of the deal won’t start for another 90 days, many in Congress believe Obama is bypassing the legislative branch of the government in order to guarantee a legacy agenda item.
Secretary of State John Kerry told ABC’s this week that while congress may have the right to vote on the agreement, their vote may not matter. “It’s presumptuous of some people to suspect that France, Russia, China, Germany, Britain ought to do what the Congress tells them to do.”
The deal Kerry brokered has received a lot of criticism from the media and congress. Iran received got relief from sanctions on weapons and missiles, which were never supposed to be part of the nuclear agreement. Many have also criticized Kerry’s negotiating skills because he failed to secure the release of four Americans being held (or whereabouts are unknown) by Iran.
The New York Times reports that having congress vote after the U.N. appears to be another instance where Kerry fell to pressure by other nations.
Secretary of State John Kerry argued that the United Nations Security Council should not vote on lifting sanctions on Iran until Congress had a chance to review the deal.
But he ran into a wall of opposition from Iran, Russia and even the United States’ closest European allies, who argued successfully that Security Council action should come first, according to Western officials.
Members of Congress on both sides of the isle have voiced opposition to the U.N.-first approach saying that it demonstrates that the international community is giving up on sanctions before congress has had a chance to consider the action.
The U.S. has been perceived as failing to provide leadership on the Iran nuclear proliferation issue for years prior to the Vienna talks which likely led to European nations bending to U.N. pressure to release sanctions.
Whether stronger American leadership may have held the coalition together will never be known.
