Secretary of State John Kerry (center) pauses Tuesday as he, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz (left) and Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew testify before House members on the Iran nuclear agreement. (AP / ANDREW HARNIK )

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Sander Levin, D-Mich., the longest-serving Jewish member in Congress, said Tuesday that he would support the Iran nuclear accord, lending a voice of approval in a chamber skeptical of the deal.

Photo by VAHID SALEMI / AP

European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini meets Tuesday with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif (right) in Tehran. Zarif said that high-level talks with EU officials will soon be held, and he called on the United States to approve the nuclear agreement to “remove the mistrust of the Iranian people.”

"Israel's security has and always will be of critical importance to me and our country," Levin said in a statement explaining his decision. "I believe that Israel, the region, and the world are far more secure if Iran does not move toward possession of a nuclear weapon. I believe the agreement is the best way to achieve that. In my view, the only anchors in public life are to dig deeply into the facts and consult."

Levin's remarks came as members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee interviewed three Cabinet secretaries sent to Capitol Hill by President Barack Obama to defend the agreement.

Speaking before the committee for the second time in a week, Secretary of State John Kerry once again made his pitch to skeptical lawmakers that the recently negotiated accord was the only chance to curb Iran's nuclear ambitions and that failure to enact the agreement would isolate the U.S. internationally.

"If Congress does not support the deal, we would see this deal die -- with no other options," Kerry said.

"I believe that Israel, the region and the world are far more secure if Iran does not move toward possession of a nuclear weapon," Kerry told committee members.

While many Republicans have already lined up against the accord and some Democrats rushed in early to defend it, the administration is most concerned with congressional Democrats, especially Jewish members and those from heavily Jewish districts who have expressed skepticism.

In a demonstration of that tension, Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., ranking member on the committee, both sounded notes of alarm.

Noting that "barely a week after the deal" was announced, the supreme leader of Iran called publicly for "death to America," Engel asked, "How can we trust Iran when this type of thing happens?"

"Iran has cheated on every agreement they've signed," Royce said. With Kerry, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew waiting to testify, he asked whether Tehran "has earned the right to be trusted" given its history.

Few new details emerged from the three-hour hearing. Some committee members asked questions; others used their time to read statements in opposition. Kerry on several occasions accused the members of misconstruing or misunderstanding the details of the agreement.

"Nothing in this deal is built on trust. Nothing," Kerry said.

Kerry was asked what would prevent Iran from adhering to the agreement for a short time and then racing toward building an atomic bomb.

Kerry said that was not a likely scenario. He said the Iranian government is under pressure to improve the economy in a country where half the population is under 30 years of age and wants jobs. And he defended the inspection protocol under the agreement, arguing that if Iran tries to develop a nuclear weapon covertly, the international community will know.

"They can't do that. Because the red flags that would go off -- the bells and whistles that would start chiming -- as a result of any movement away from what they have to do" to meet their obligations under the agreement, Kerry said.

Congress has 60 days to review the deal, after which it can pass a resolution of approval or disapproval -- or do nothing. Obama has said he would veto a resolution of disapproval, which Congress could override only with a two-thirds vote of both houses.

Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., the majority leader, said Monday that he expected Congress would move forward on a resolution of disapproval.

On Tuesday, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes asked for additional intelligence assessments related to the nuclear agreement.

In a letter to Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, Nunes requested an analysis about whether intelligence agencies will be able to verify Iran's compliance with the deal.

The California Republican also is seeking an analysis of Iran's nuclear intent and what he called an "out of the box" assessment of a variety of issues relating to Iran and the nuclear agreement.

He said he wants the documents by Sept. 3. Intelligence agencies generally comply with requests from their oversight chairmen.

While the Obama administration lobbies, opponents are expected to bombard radio stations and other media with an August recess campaign designed to pressure Democrats. Israel's ambassador to the U.S., Ron Dermer, met with conservative House Republicans last week to urge them to "leave everything on the field" to derail the accord.

soil samples disputed

As U.S. lawmakers expressed skepticism on whether Iran would cooperate, the Islamic Republic requested that its officials be allowed to take soil samples at a site where it is alleged to have experimented with ways to detonate a nuclear weapon.

The investigation by the International Atomic Energy Agency is part of the nuclear deal. Iran denies any such experiments but has agreed to give the agency access to the Parchin military complex.

The U.N. agency may agree to the request provided it is allowed to monitor the process, two officials said Tuesday.

Several U.S. senators cited Obama administration officials last week as saying Iran could conduct its own soil sampling at Parchin. The officials who spoke Tuesday said a final agreement has not yet been reached between Iran and the U.N. agency.

The officials said stringent oversight of the soil sampling could include video monitoring. They did not say what reasons Iran gave for wanting to take its own samples. The samples would be analyzed by the agency for traces left by nuclear experiments.

The officials are from agency member nations and keep an eye on Iran's nuclear program. They requested anonymity because their information is confidential. The agency had no immediate comment.

The purported weapons work and the U.N. agency's investigation are not central to the nuclear deal, which calls for the U.S. and other world powers to end economic and military sanctions in exchange for concessions from Iran in its nuclear program. Tehran says its program is entirely peaceful, but the U.S. and many other nations believe it is aimed at acquiring nuclear weapons.

Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran's foreign minister, called Tuesday for the U.S. to implement the deal to "remove the mistrust of the Iranian people," adding that Tehran would follow through on its commitments.

Zarif made the comments after meeting with President Hassan Rouhani and European Union foreign-policy chief Federica Mogherini in Tehran.

The foreign minister announced that "high-level" talks soon will start with the European Union, with a focus on energy, the environment and human rights, as well as "extremism, terrorism and sectarianism" in the Middle East.

Rouhani suggested after the meeting that Iran and the EU pursue closer relations.

"Scientific, cultural and political relations with the EU should be developed," Rouhani was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency. "However, promoting economic and trade relations is more accessible and easier."

journalist's release urged

Also on Tuesday, the lawyer for a Washington Post journalist facing trial in Iran on charges including espionage pressed for her client's immediate release from prison, according to Iranian media.

Her comments did not, however, include details of the next step in the closed proceedings against Post correspondent Jason Rezaian, who has been in Iranian custody for more than a year. He has denied the allegations against him.

Last week, Obama said U.S. officials will not "relent" until the Iranians free Rezaian and two other American citizens known to be detained in Iran.

Rezaian's lawyer, Leila Ahsan, was quoted by the semiofficial Tasnim and Fars Iranian news agencies as saying that the nuclear deal reached this month should be a catalyst for Rezaian's release from Tehran's Evin Prison.

Ahsan also alluded to new Iranian laws that Rezaian's family has insisted prohibit holding someone in detention for more than a year on charges other than murder. "He has been jailed over a year and ... keeping him in jail is illegal based on Iran's new penal code," she said.

Ahsan did not suggest that an immediate release was likely. She said last week that she believes the next hearing in the case in Tehran's Revolutionary Court could bring the trial to a close, but a date for that hearing has not been set.

Ahsan was unavailable Tuesday for further comment. She is barred from discussing the case with journalists outside Iran.

Rezaian, 39, the Post's bureau chief in Tehran, was detained July 22, 2014, along with his Iranian wife and two other photojournalists, and has reportedly been accused of espionage and engaging in "propaganda against the establishment."

His wife, Yeganeh Salehi, a correspondent for the National newspaper in Abu Dhabi, was later released on bail. One of the photojournalists faces charges related to the case.

Information for this article was contributed by Jennifer Steinhauer of The New York Times; by Deb Riechmann, George Jahn, Ken Dilanian and staff members of The Associated Press; and by Brian Murphy of The Washington Post.

A Section on 07/29/2015