U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry delivers a statement on the Iran talks deal at the Vienna International Center in Vienna, Austria Tuesday. After 18 days of intense and often fractious negotiation, world powers and Iran struck a landmark deal Tuesday to curb Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for billions of dollars in relief from international sanctions, an agreement designed to avert the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran and another U.S. military intervention in the Muslim world. (AP Photo/Ronald Zak)
BOSTON (AP) — Members of Massachusetts all-Democratic congressional delegation are hailing a deal struck between the U.S. and other world powers and Iran.
The accord is intended to curb Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for billions of dollars in relief from international sanctions. Congress has 60 days to review the agreement. Lawmakers could hold a vote of disapproval and take further action.
U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren said President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry deserve credit for working with U.S. allies to reach a negotiated solution to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran without resorting to military action.
SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN
She said she looks forward to reviewing the agreement to make sure it’s “tough, verifiable, and effective.”
“A nuclear-armed Iran represents a significant threat to the United States, to our allies in the Middle East, and to the world,” Warren said in a statement. “Diplomacy represents our best hope of ending that threat, far better than the alternative of escalating tensions and war.”
U.S. Sen. Edward Markey — who holds Kerry’s old seat — praised Kerry’s work hammering out a deal.
Markey also said he wants to examine the language of the agreement.
EDWARD J. MARKEY
“We need to ensure that this agreement has the most invasive inspections possible, the most intensive enforcement provisions possible, including expedited ability to reinstate sanctions if Iran violates the agreement,” Markey said in a release.U.S. Reps. Katherine Clark and Joe Kennedy also praised the agreement but said they wanted time to review it.
Clark said Kerry’s “tenacity and commitment has produced what most thought impossible — a possible diplomatic solution to the decades-long problem of Iran’s growing nuclear program.”
Kennedy said he’ll be reviewing the details of the deal before deciding whether he can support it.
Kennedy said a nuclear Iran would pose a grave threat and it’s “absolutely critical this agreement contain the necessary level of protection, verification, inspection and consequence to prevent that scenario.”
