What’s the state of Kerry’s nuclear deal with Iran?

Read the Full Transcript

• HARI SREENIVASAN:

  Secretary Kerry also said today he hopes to reach the framework of a nuclear deal with Iran by the end of March.

  Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he's — quote — "alarmed" about the current plan.

  SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY), Majority Leader: The president is about to make what we believe will be a very bad deal.

  He clearly doesn't want Congress involved in it at all. And we're worried about it. We don't think he ought to make a bad deal with one of the worst regimes in the world.

• HARI SREENIVASAN:

  The Wall Street Journal's Carol Lee joins us now from Washington.

  So let's start talking first about the 47 senators who wrote a letter to Iran and what that did to this negotiation process.

• CAROL LEE, The Wall Street Journal:

  Well, if anything, it created a political firestorm in the U.S. I think we don't yet know exactly the impact that it is going to have on negotiations this week, which starts Sunday night.

  But it certainly really angered the White House, which felt like the letter was designed for no other intention than to undercut the president on his chief foreign policy initiative of his second term.

  And the — there's two tracks that it could go down in terms of outcome or fallout from it, and one could benefit the White House.

  And that is that, it seemed to make Democrats who were aligning with Republicans in some legislation that the White House opposes regarding Iran, it seemed to give them pause in terms of whether or not they were going to — or continue to support that legislation, or, at the very least, there are bills that the president has said he would veto.

  And one of the things Republicans are trying to do is get a veto-proof majority in the Senate.

  And this letter, because the Democrats interpreted it as so partisan, may have the benefit for the White House of not — the Republicans not being able to achieve that veto-proof majority.

  The second thing that this did is, it creates a situation where the White House — and raised concern in the White House that, if Iran walks away from the talks, their view is, it's very important that Iran be to blame for that, that, if talks fail, that Iran owns that.

  And if the talks fail and Iran can blame the U.S., then that is a real concern.

• HARI SREENIVASAN:

  Right.

  So the White House sent a letter of its own back last night. What did that say?

• CAROL LEE:

  Yes.

  That — this is a letter from the president's chief of staff, Denis McDonough, to Senator Bob Corker, who is the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. And it basically said, look, I don't — we don't support your bill, which is widely known.

  Senator Corker has a bill that would essentially give Congress an up-or-down vote or where it could approve or reject any final deal.

  And the White House has said, the president would veto that. They don't like it. They don't think that this is the kind of an agreement that requires Senate ratification.

  And so Denis McDonough had sent a letter to Senator Corker in saying that they don't oppose this.

  And, in fact, he started to make the argument, which I think you are likely to hear more of, is — his argument was that Congress will get a vote on this.

  It's — they don't get a vote on whether or not to approve a deal or deny a deal, but they will get a vote in terms of and they will have their say in terms of having to lift sanctions, because they can't — the U.S. cannot — the president cannot unilaterally lift all of the sanctions, particularly some of the most intense ones.

  And that requires an act of Congress.

• HARI SREENIVASAN:

  All right, so how does this play out over the next week?

• CAROL LEE:

  Well, as they get closer — and the administration feels that they are closer than they have ever been to a deal — there is pretty much a broad belief that they will meet this deadline by the end of March.

  But, at the same time, the political theater and outcry in the U.S. is really stepping up.

  And so it — it remains to be seen how exactly this will play out. But I think, you know, and it also — also remains to be seen how Iran responds to the letter.

  And I think you will see that in the next — in the coming days, you know, what their posture is in the latest round of negotiations.

• HARI SREENIVASAN:

  All right, Carol Lee of The Wall Street Journal, thanks so much.

• CAROL LEE:

  Thank you.

• HARI SREENIVASAN:

  You can read the letter sent by the 47 Republican senators and the letter the White House sent to Senator Corker online at PBS.org/NewsHour.