Did Obama Just Break the Law on His Own Iran Deal?

On May 7, just minutes before passing the Corker-Cardin Iran bill, Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) smugly and deceitfully noted the following: “It was in the 1990s that Congress started to impose sanctions against Iran for its Nuclear weapons program. Only Congress can remove those sanctions or permanently change it.”

Cardin was smiling that day because he knew his bill would be sold to the public as a mandate for congressional approval of the impending Iran treaty – antithetical to what the bill actually accomplished. He knew that, in fact, this bill would de facto require two-thirds of both houses to disapprove of the treaty in order to prevent Obama from lifting sanctions. He also knew that Democrats would never deliver the requisite votes to disapprove of the deal and he would certainly never fight for that outcome. In other words, sanctions would be lifted unilaterally by Obama, not by two-thirds of the Senate affirmatively ratifying the deal, in contravention to the Treaty Clause of the Constitution.

Now, Obama is violating even the pathetic terms of the Corker-Cardin bill by preventing Congress from even mustering the two-thirds opposition to the deal. Ben Cardin is nowhere to be seen.

Foreign Policy magazine is reporting that UN Ambassador Samantha Power plans to submit a 14-page draft resolution to the UN Security Council as early as next week for approval of the Iran deal.

You might be thinking, what happened to the 60-day period of congressional review, pursuant to the Corker Cardin bill, when Obama was to be restricted from lifting sanctions? Can’t Congress at least be afforded the 60 days to attempt to muster the 67 votes needed to disapprove of the deal?

No chance. Obama is reneging on the very essence of the agreement and the bill he signed into law in May – an agreement that to begin with, violates the Senate’s treaty powers. By taking this deal straight to the Security Council for approval, although the implementation of the deal will not take effect until later this year, Congress would be in violation of international law by rejecting this treaty – if they miraculously mustered the votes in September.

Secretary of State John Kerry blatantly and brazenly admitted that they have double-crossed Congress:

“If Congress were to veto the deal, Congress — the United States of America — would be in noncompliance with this agreement and contrary to all of the other countries in the world. I don’t think that’s going to happen,” U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters Tuesday.

Where is Ben Cardin and his merry band of faux pro-Israel Democrats now?

Appallingly, the text of the Iran deal takes into account Iran’s parliament for approval of some aspects of the enforcement measures but completely ignores the U.S. Senate.

At this point, conservatives must train their fire on Ben Cardin and expose him for the fraud that he is. As the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, he has placed party loyalty over his own stated views on Iran and emphatic promises he made to win support for his unconstitutional bill.

Conservatives must also hold up all nominees and budget bills until Obama agrees to back off his intent to violate the terms of his own unconstitutional agreement with Congress. Sen. Ted Cruz (TX) is promising to hold up the State Department reauthorization bill as well.

The behavior of some Jewish Democrats in Congress led by Ben Cardin as it relates to this Iran issue is truly indefensible and transparently insidious. They have played both sides of the fence for too long. This is their Waterloo. Not only does this deal endanger America and reward those who murdered over a thousand U.S. troops, it represents an urgent and existential threat to Israel. This deal even contains a provision (page 142) obligating the five western powers to help Iran with their nuclear program and prevent any “sabotage” of their nuclear security – clearly a warning to Israel.

For Ben Cardin and his fellow liberals, the time for choosing is now. (“Did Obama Just Break the Law on His Own Iran Deal?”, originally posted HERE)

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