U.S. Congress to impose sanction ‘very’ quickly on Iranian regime if no agreement reached

The Iranian regime has “no intention” of keeping its word on an agreement being negotiated in Switzerland over its nuclear programme, U.s House speaker John Boehner said on Sunday.

Speaking on CNN, Boehner said: “We’ve got a regime that’s never quite kept their word about anything”.

“I just don’t understand why we would sign an agreement with a group of people who have no intention of keeping their word.”

The Ohio Republican said on CNN’s “State of the Union” that he’s skeptical the Obama administration will reach a deal with Iran to rein in Tehran’s nuclear program.

“Frankly, we should have kept the sanctions in place so that we could have gotten to a real agreement,” he said.

The tense international negotiations aimed at preventing the Iranian regime from developing nuclear weapons are headed down to the wire with prospects darkening after Tehran rejected what Western negotiators consider a critical part of any deal.

For months, the Iranian regime tentatively agreed that it would send a large portion of its stockpile of uranium to Russia, where it would not be accessible for use in any future weapons program. But on Sunday deputy foreign minister of the clerical regime made a surprise comment to Iranian reporters, ruling out an agreement that involved giving up a stockpile that has cost the country billions of dollars to amass.

Meanwhile, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said on Sunday the U.S. Congress must review any agreement the U.S. and other world powers may reach with the Iranian regime on curbing its nuclear program.

Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey said he has “real concerns” over the talks and that he wouldn’t support any deal that leaves Iran a “threshold nuclear” state, according to Bloomberg.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Bob Corker has said the panel will consider legislation on April 14 that he is co-sponsoring with Menendez, which would allow Congress to review and approve a final agreement.

“This bill is a good bill and I’d hoped the administration would have supported it,” Menendez said Sunday at a synagogue in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey. “We are going to have to see what the agreement is and what are the mechanisms for verification. There needs to be a very robust inspection.”