News Analysis: Opponents blast historic Iran nuke deal, setting stage for White House battle with Congress

Tuesday saw a thunderous reaction from opponents in the United States of the just-reached nuclear agreement between Iran and the world's major powers, as they believe it will not stop the Islamic republic from gaining access to nuclear weapons.

The reaction is setting the stage for a knock-down, drag-out fight between the Republican-led Congress and the White House.

Indeed, Republican lawmakers will try to block the measure, and they have 60 days to review the agreement, giving opponents ample time to sift through the details and challenge the deal.

U.S. President Barack Obama, however, has warned that he would veto any bill from Congress that seeks to roll back the deal, and some in Congress, as well as experts, have said that overriding such a presidential veto would be difficult.

The agreement is contentious on both sides of the political aisle because many lawmakers are suspicious of Iran after a 35-year history of bad relations between the two countries, not to mention the Iranian-backed militias that the Pentagon said killed U.S. soldiers during the Iraq war.

It will take considerable persuasion to convince members of Congress to approve the deal and lift the trade embargo that has wreaked havoc on Iran's economy and sent its currency into free fall. Many lawmakers want certainty that Iran won't get a nuclear weapon, and it is impossible, even through a negotiated agreement, to reduce that probability to zero, experts said.

The hardest part for the Obama administration will be convincing Congress to lift the trade embargo, and there are no legal loopholes the White House can use to circumvent lawmakers. However, completely rolling back the deal may be a tall order for Republicans.

"Congress will seek to derail the deal by voting it down. But an Obama veto means it will take two-thirds of the House and Senate to overturn the presidential veto. That is a very steep bar for congressional Republicans," Brookings Institution's senior fellow Darrell West told Xinhua.

"(Republicans) would have no problem in getting a majority (of Republican members) of the House and Senate to vote 'no,' but they are going to need a lot of Democrats who vote 'no' in order to triumph in the end. My guess is they (the Republicans) will not get the two-thirds vote they need and the deal will go through," West said.

Opponents in the Republican-led Congress, as well as Republican presidential candidates, harshly criticized the deal, which they said has in fact paved the way for Iran to obtain nuclear weapons. However, Tehran has insisted that its nuclear program is peaceful and only used for medical isotopes and energy.

Leading Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush denounced the agreement, saying "this is not diplomacy, it is appeasement." Top contender Senator Marco Rubio said it would be up to the next president to roll back the deal.

Devin Nunes, chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said he doubted the Obama administration's claim that the deal would prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

"I don't know what information the Obama administration possesses that indicates this deal will actually prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon or will cause the mullahs to reduce their support for worldwide terrorism, but it is sure that it is not the same intelligence we are seeing in the Intelligence Committee," Nunes said.

The deal has also drawn concern from Israel, Washington's main ally in the Middle East, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying Tuesday that sanctions relief will free up billions of U.S. dollars for Iran to continue to support terrorist organizations, repeating previously made warnings that Tehran aims to support terrorism and destroy the state of Israel.

"From the initial reports we can already conclude that this agreement is a historic mistake for the world," Netanyahu said Tuesday.

For his part, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said that the agreement would bring about a new era of cooperation. "We do not seek WMDs (weapons of mass destruction), nor exert pressure on regional states. We call for greater brotherhood, unity and further expansion of ties," he said.

Meanwhile, Obama trumpeted the arrangement as a historic breakthrough in a statement Tuesday, but warned Congress he would "veto any legislation that prevents the successful implementation of this deal."

"We do not have to accept an inevitable spiral into conflict. And we certainly should not seek it. And precisely because the stakes are so high, this is not the time for politics or posturing. Tough talk from Washington does not solve problems. Hard-nosed diplomacy, leadership that has united the world's major powers offers a more effective way to verify that Iran is not pursuing a nuclear weapon," Obama said after the deal was signed. Endi