Obama urges passage of Iran nuclear deal in U.S. Congress

UNITED States (U.S.) President Barack Obama, has urged the opposition-led Congress to support the nuclear deal with Iran, calling the agreement “a powerful display of leadership and diplomacy” by Washington DC. 

In a press conference on Wednesday, Obama said that the deal achieved the goal of cutting off “every single path” Iran has to a nuclear bomb.

“I can say with confidence, that Iran will not be in a position to develop a nuclear bomb,” he said. “Based on the facts, the majority of Congress should approve it.”

The opposition Republican Party controls both the House of Representatives and the Senate branches of Congress in the US. Earlier this year, lawmakers passed a resolution giving them authority to review the deal within the next 60 days.

Obama has been holding an intense public lobbying campaign to convince Congress to approve the deal. He has also threatened to veto any measure against the Iran deal.

He said that in the absence of a deal, the international economic sanctions that brought Iran to the negotiating table would unravel, and the world community will be unable to put the sanctions regime together.

“Without a deal, we risk even more war in the Middle East, and other countries in the Middle East would feel compelled to develop their own nuclear weapons,” Obama said, adding that such a chain of events would risk a nuclear arms race “in the most dangerous region in the world.”

Obama however ruled out the re-establishment of a formal diplomatic relationship with Iran similar to Cuba in the near future.    

Later, the White House published readout of a phone call between Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin, in which the US president thanked his counterpart for supporting the deal.

“The President thanked President Putin for Russia’s important role in achieving this milestone, the culmination of nearly 20 months of intense negotiations,” the statement said.

Earlier to Wednesday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhiani also praised the deal as a political victory of his country.