Republican efforts to scuttle Barack Obama’s nuclear accord with Iran were blocked by Democrats in the United States Senate on Thursday, paving the way for the president to implement the deal struck between Tehran and six world powers in July.

Senate Democrats filibustered a procedural vote on a measure that would have registered formal disapproval of the Iran deal, in effect stopping it in its tracks. The Senate voted 58-42, short of a required 60-vote threshold, on whether to end debate on the Iran deal, thus failing to even reach an up-or-down vote on the disapproval resolution itself.

The vote marked a major victory for Obama, after months of intense lobbying by his administration geared at persuading Democrats to stand with the president on a legacy-defining issue. Although congressional Democrats rallied sufficient support last month to sustain Obama’s veto – should it come to that point – it only became apparent this week that Senate Democrats had the votes they needed to filibuster the resolution and avoid the need for a veto by the president.

Republicans, who uniformly oppose the deal, had nothing but scathing words to offer toward the deal.

“I want to be recorded for history’s purposes, if nothing else, to say those of us who oppose this deal understood where it would lead, and we are making a terrible mistake,” Florida senator Marco Rubio, a Republican presidential candidate who has vowed to reverse the deal if elected in 2016, said on the Senate floor ahead of the vote.





Hillary Clinton gives forceful support for the Iran nuclear deal struck by the Obama administration. Speaking at the Brookings Institution in Washington DC on Wednesday

Forty-two Senate Democrats publicly backed the agreement, with just a handful of defections.

Thursday’s vote was the product of an agreement reached by the Senate in May to first undergo a 60-day review period on the accord and then hold a vote that would register either approval or disapproval of the deal. Republicans complained on Thursday that by filibustering the procedural vote, Democrats were not only preventing a final vote on the resolution but also violating the terms of that agreement.

“Democratic senators just voted to filibuster and block the American people from even having a real vote on one of the most consequential foreign policy issues of our time,” Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate majority leader, said in a floor speech after the vote. “This is a deal which was designed to go around Congress and the American people from the very start.”



McConnell, a senator from Kentucky, said he would bring the procedural vote back up as early as next week, even as Democrats said the outcome would remain the same.

Senate minority leader Harry Reid mocked McConnell’s assertion that Democrats had not abided by the rules in his own floor speech, pointing out that it was Republicans who had established that the deal would be held to a 60-vote threshold in an unprecedented letter sent to Iranian leaders in March. Republicans, he added, had used a record number of filibusters against Obama’s agenda when in the minority, prior to retaking control of the Senate in November’s midterm elections.

“The Senate has spoken and has spoken with a clarion voice,” Reid said. “The matter is over with. We should move on.”



Dick Durbin, the minority whip who has worked tirelessly behind the scenes to shore up support among Democrats in favor of the deal, said he could not recall a moment this consequential since the 2002 vote on the Iraq War.

“It reminded me that despite all of the pettiness and all the partisanship, there are moments in a senatorial career and the history of this body when members rise to a historic moment. Today was one of them,” Durbin told reporters on Capitol Hill after the vote.

Republican leaders in the House of Representatives were eyeing a vote on a motion of approval, in an attempt to force Democrats to formally record their support for the agreement in a vote.

The strategy would be “about holding every member accountable for their vote”, the House speaker, John Boehner, told reporters.

Donald Trump expressed bullish opposition to the Iranian nuclear deal during a rally in Washington DC, saying it was ‘incompetently negotiated’ by a group of ‘very stupid leaders’. Guardian

Boehner, a Republican from Ohio, said the House would use “every tool at our disposal to stop, slow and delay this agreement from being fully implemented”.

“This debate is far from over,” he said, “and frankly it’s just beginning.”

The July deal struck between Iran and six world powers provides Tehran relief from crippling economic sanctions in exchange for limits on its nuclear program.

Republicans complain the deal does not do away with the program altogether, fails to provide for spot inspections of nuclear sites or force Iran to end support for militant groups like Hamas.

Obama praised the outcome in a statement shortly after the vote, hailing what he called a “historic step forward.”



“This vote is a victory for diplomacy, for American national security, and for the safety and security of the world,” the president said. “For nearly two years, we negotiated from a position of strength to reach an agreement that meets our core objectives. Since we concluded these negotiations, we have had the most consequential national security debate since the decision to invade Iraq more than a decade ago.”

“Today, I am heartened that so many Senators judged this deal on the merits, and am gratified by the strong support of lawmakers and citizens alike. Going forward, we will turn to the critical work of implementing and verifying this deal so that Iran cannot pursue a nuclear weapon, while pursuing a foreign policy that leaves our country – and the world – a safer place.”