The Biden administration pledged on Wednesday that if talks on a nuclear deal with Iran are successfully completed, the deal will be submitted to Congress for approval.
"We will want to return to the agreement if its benefits outweigh the sanctions and we will submit this agreement to the scrutiny of Congress in accordance with the special law if we reach the agreement," Iranian special envoy Robert Mali said.
Although there is a law that requires the administration to submit nuclear agreements with Iran for congressional approval by special vote, the prevailing assessment so far has been that the administration would interpret the new agreement as a revival of the old agreement, which had already received congressional approval in 2015.
Mali's words therefore seem to indicate a strategic change in attitude, possibly against the background of the growing voices within the Democratic Party who dislike a return to the agreement.
If they keep that promise, then the administration has a few months left to get congressional approval, as according to forecasts in mid-November elections the Republicans will win a majority in both houses and in January the new Congress will be sworn in.
Mali said at the hearing, against the background of the continued deadlock in the eighth round of talks in Vienna, that "we have no agreement with Iran and the chances of achieving it are very low."
"The United States is ready to continue to expand and enforce sanctions and to respond decisively to any Iranian escalation, in partnership with Israel and its regional partners."
He indirectly referred to the Iranian demand that is sticking to the completion of the talks - removing the Revolutionary Guards from the list of terrorist organizations in the Biden administration - and said that the US does not intend to involve such issues in the nuclear talks.
"If Iran continues to demand demands that go beyond the nuclear deal we will continue to reject the requests," Mali said.
As you may recall, on Tuesday Politico reported that President Joe Biden had "definitively and absolutely" informed Prime Minister Naftali Bennett that he had decided not to accept the Iranian demand.
Mali also said there was no military solution to the Iran issue.
The plan can only be delayed militarily, but not solved
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