US Congress wants full surrender of Iran, not agreement: Analyst

The US Congress is not interested in a nuclear agreement with Iran, rather it wants complete surrender of the Islamic Republic, an author and human rights activist says.

“The US Senate is pretty much owned by Israel. They are giving their allegiance to the far rightwing Israeli government,” said Rich Forer.

“The US Congress wants Iran to surrender, that’s really what they want; they want full surrender,” he told Press TV in an interview on Friday.

“They want Iran to go way, way, way beyond the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, of which Iran is signatory and Israel is not, of which Iran has so far abided by,” he added.

He made the remarks when asked to comment on President Barack Obama’s recent letter to Congress about the Iran nuclear agreement, which will remove economic sanctions against the Islamic Republic in exchange for certain restrictions on its nuclear program.

Obama told the Republican-dominated Congress that the military option against Iran will remain on the table for several years, despite the Vienna nuclear agreement.

“Should Iran seek to dash toward a nuclear weapon, all of the options available to the United States — including the military option — will remain available through the life of the deal and beyond,” Obama wrote to Congress on August 19, the New York Times reported on Thursday.

“What they [Congressmen] are saying was expressed by Norman Podhoretz, who is the dean of the American neocon establishment, and he said that the alternative to this treaty, this agreement is war. And that’s really what they want,” Forer said.

“And the reason they want war is on the behalf of Israel. They are doing the bidding of Israel, giving their allegiance and locality to Israel – this is the US Senate and Congress I am talking about – instead of to the United States,” he stated.

“They are trying to choose violence and war that would upset the world economy over the best deal that the United States can get, which is enforceable to the most part and probably would allow Iran… to become an economic power in the Middle East and start having better relations with the West,” the analyst noted.

The Republican-controlled Congress is reviewing the nuclear agreement and has until September 17 to vote to either approve or disapprove of it.

Republicans, who control both chambers of Congress, almost unanimously oppose the agreement because they say it gives too many concessions to Iran and threatens the security of Israel, a major US ally in the Middle East.

Obama has pledged to veto a resolution of disapproval in Congress, and opponents need a two-thirds vote to override his veto.

“Israel wants to make sure that the US doesn’t have good relations with Iran… and the reason is because Israel wants to hide its occupation of the Palestinian people, to have a diversion from that, and a diversion from the ethnic cleansing,” Forer said.

“And they want to make sure that the US always remains enemy of Iran, so Israel maintains its Middle east hegemony,” he concluded.

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