Sen. McConnell: Any Iran nuclear deal has tough road in US Congress

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The top Republican in the U.S. Senate on Sunday cast doubt on whether President Barack Obama will be able to win approval in Congress for any nuclear deal now under negotiation with Iran. "I think it's going to be a very hard sell, if it's completed, in Congress," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said during an interview on the "Fox News Sunday" broadcast. "We already know it's going to leave Iran as a threshold nuclear state." The president can enter a deal with Iran, which Congress would review. If the review went against him, Obama could veto the disapproval legislation. Congress could then try to reverse his veto, which is difficult. But if it succeeded, its disapproval would take away Obama's ability to temporarily waive many U.S. sanctions on Iran. Many Republicans in the U.S. Congress, including McConnell, have criticized the negotiations, saying the United States instead should be ratcheting up economic sanctions against Iran to deter it from developing a nuclear weapon. Tehran maintains that its nuclear work is focused solely on peaceful purposes, such as developing nuclear energy. McConnell said that if the Senate and House of Representatives, both controlled by Republicans, pass a resolution disapproving an Iran deal submitted by Obama, the president would veto it. It then would take a supermajority vote, two-thirds, of Congress to override that veto. "He (Obama) will have to get at least 34 votes" in the 100-member Senate to sustain his veto, McConnell said, adding that he hoped Democrats would resist a "strong pull" not to buck Obama, a fellow Democrat. (Reporting by Richard Cowan and Douwe Miedema; Editing by Ruth Pitchford)