Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2015 | 12:03 p.m.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid reiterated his support for the Iran nuclear agreement today, as the number of Democratic senators who say they will vote against a Republican effort to block the deal rose to 41, enough to block the GOP effort.
“The bottom line is that enforcing this agreement can prevent the things we most dread — but undermining it would permit those very same dreadful consequences,” he said during a speech to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
In his remarks, Reid argued that the deal was the best option for preventing a nuclear-armed Iran and that blocking it would all but ensure Iran’s ability to build a nuclear bomb. Reid’s comments came just before three Democratic senators — Gary Peters of Michigan, Ron Wyden of Oregon and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut — announced support for the Iran agreement Tuesday morning.
Senate Minority Leader Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada attends a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, June 2, 2015.
Reid said he recognized concerns that the deal could bolster an Iran leadership that is hostile to the state of Israel.
“No one is blind to the threat Iran poses,” he said. “But again, no one should forget that Iran would become a threat of an entirely different magnitude if it ever were to have a nuclear weapon.”
In his remarks, Reid also argued that the agreement did not rely on blind trust.
“We have done everything possible to make sure that if Iran cheats, we’ll know, we’ll know quickly, and we’ll act immediately and with the international community behind us,” Reid said. “That makes us safer. That makes Israel safer. That makes the world safer.”
The Iran deal, negotiated with Iran, the U.N. Security Council, and the European Union, has been strongly criticized by a number of Israeli leaders, including Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu. In the speech Tuesday morning, Reid stressed the importance of defending Israel.
