WASHINGTON: The US Senate will take up a new bill on Monday requiring President Barack Obama to seek congressional approval for any agreement he signs with Iran.

The bill, if adopted, will also restrict the president’s authority to waive sanctions on Iran for 60 days.

The Republicans, who have a majority in both chambers of the US Congress, also want to expedite an amendment seeking new sanctions on Iran.

“When it comes to this nuclear deal, let’s wait until there’s actually a deal on the table that Iran has agreed to,” said Mr Obama while talking to reporters after Mr Netanyahu’s speech.

Once the agreement was signed “everybody can evaluate it. You don’t have to speculate,” he added.

Mr Obama said the alternative that the Israeli prime minister offered was “no deal, in which case Iran will immediately begin, once again, pursuing its nuclear program, accelerating its nuclear programme.”

If efforts to derail the Geneva talks succeeded, the world powers negotiating a nuclear deal with Iran, would not have “any insight into what they’re doing and without restraint,” he warned.

Mr Netanyahu, who returned to Israel on Wednesday after a two-day visit to Washington, rejected President Obama’s suggestion that he offered no alternatives in his speech.

He said he presented a practical alternative that would extend Iran’s break out time by adding new restrictions.

But Mr Obama said the deal he was negotiating with Iran offered the best option.

“Nothing else comes close. Sanctions won’t do it. Even military action would not be as successful as the deal that we have put forward,” he said.

The New York Times reported that while presidential powers allowed Mr Obama to suspend some sanctions against Iran and lift others entirely, he would eventually need lawmakers to agree to permanently terminate all of the penalties as Iran wants.

Published in Dawn, March 5th, 2015

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