US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says that President Barack Obama will have a hard time convincing Congress over a possible nuclear agreement with Iran.
“I know there will be a strong pull not to go against the president on something that is so important to him, but it is a very hard sell,” McConnell told Fox News on Sunday.
“We already know that it’s going to leave Iran as a threshold nuclear state, we know that,” he added.
The Republican senator also criticized Obama’s administration.
“It appears the administration’s approach to this is to enter in any agreement Iran will get into,” he said.
McConnell also opposed lifting of anti-Iran sanctions, claiming that Iran came to the negotiating table due to the sanctions.
“We could have ratcheted up the sanctions even further because that’s what brought to the table in the first place,” he stated.
In an earlier statement, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif asserted that pressure would not work against his country as sanctions have failed to keep Iran from developing its peaceful nuclear program.
“Now they realize that the most indiscriminate and unjust economic sanctions against my country have achieved absolutely none of their declared objectives,” Zarif said, adding “now they have opted for the negotiating table.”
The latest round of nuclear negotiations between Iran and the six world powers started sixteen days ago in Vienna.
On Sunday, however, US Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters that he is “hopeful” to reach a nuclear deal after his meetings with Zarif turned out to be “very good.”
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius also stated on Sunday that the marathon talks are “entering the final phase,” stirring speculations that a historic deal is in sight.