Special to WorldTribune.com

Congressional Democrats “are simply not listening to the American people,” who oppose the Iran nuclear deal, Sen. Tom Cotton said on Sept. 2.

“A broad majority of the American people do in fact oppose this deal, a majority in both the Senate and the House will oppose this deal, and that will make it unprecedented in the history of United States foreign policy,” said the Arkansas Republican shortly after Sen. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland became the 34th Democrat to support the deal.

Mikulski’s move gave President Barack Obama enough votes to sustain a promised veto of Congress’s disapproval vote on the Iran deal.

Cotton, however, is refusing to back down on the issue.

“I wouldn’t call it a victory. The president appears to be on the verge of getting just a small partisan minority to block a veto override. I am absolutely confident we will have a majority to oppose the deal, by a strong majority in both chambers. The sad fact is that the way this deal is structured and the fact the president refuses to respect the constitution and submit it as a treaty — which requires two-thirds of the vote — means that it might proceed with just a small minority in support of it.”

Cotton, an army veteran who served both in Iraq and Afghanistan, visited Israel this week and met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon.

“This is a bad deal. It is dangerous for the U.S. and for allies like Israel, it allows Iran to keep a vast nuclear infrastructure, putting it on a path to a bomb while doing nothing to stop the regional aggression support for terrorism, in fact enabling it — because they are going to get tens of millions of dollars under this deal,” Cotton told i24news.

“Too many of my colleagues are discounting Iran’s rhetoric, and the threat it poses to the U.S. and our allies. They are too optimistic about the enforcement and inspection mechanisms in these deal,” Cotton said, adding that supporters of the deal “are simply not listening to the American people who do oppose the deal.”

Cotton said that Obama had “pulled out all the stops” to get the deal passed.

“The president had made it clear from his very first campaign in 2008 that he wanted to pursue a nuclear deal with Iran. He started writing secret letters to the supreme leader shortly after elected, he looked the other way in 2009 when the Iranian people rose up in protest against the ayatollahs.”

Cotton added that “the story concerning the deal doesn’t end here, it just ends one chapter in a 36-year history of confronting the Islamic revolution. Iran is still the number one sponsor of terrorism in the world, Iran still continues to destabilize the region and spread sectarian conflict in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and Yemen.

“The U.S. and its allies need to confront Iran’s regional aggression and make clear that this deal is not opening a new day of rapprochement with Iran. We have to insist this deal — weak though it may be — is enforced down to the letter make sure that Iran is not cheating on it and instead letting it accelerate their path to the weapon.”

  Cotton: Iran deal is opposed by both Houses of Congress and broad majority of Americans, Obama veto, Sen. Barbara Mikulski, Sen. Tom Cotton, WorldTribune.com