32 Republicans, alongside U.S. Senator Jim Risch, sent a letter to President Biden warning him, saying he cannot sign any agreement with the Iranian counterpart without Congress having the chance to review and endorse the document first.
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"We write to call attention to a range of obligations that your administration is statutorily mandated to fulfill in relation to Congressional oversight over any such agreement," reads the letter. "We also write to emphasize that we are committed to using the full range of options and leverage available to United States Senators to ensure that you meet those obligations and that the implementation of any agreement will be severe if not terminally hampered if you do not."
Republican senators remarked on the letter that under the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act (INARA), the current U.S. administration is required to present an arrangement with Iran to Congress or be blocked otherwise. The Republican representatives warned that the progress made by Iran about a nuclear arsenal would require measures beyond the JCPOA aimed to reverse it.
The Biden administration established the civil nuclear waivers for international nuclear cooperation on Friday. The State Department noted that the sanction ease had not been a concession to Iran. Washington considers that Tehran was scaling back on its nuclear program, hoping to return to the 2015 deal.
"A deal that addresses all sides' core concerns is in sight, but if it is not reached in the coming weeks, Iran's ongoing nuclear advances will make it impossible for us to return to the JCPOA," stated on Monday U.S. State Department spokesperson.
According to Iranian counterpart, both parties had made "significant progress in various areas of the Vienna negotiations," comprising guarantees sought by Tehran that the U.S. would not infringe the pact again.
On Monday, the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh decreed that the answers that "the United States brings... to Vienna will determine when we can reach an agreement."