WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Anti-Defamation League counseled Congress to reject the Iran nuclear deal.
“Given the outstanding questions and our deep reservations about the agreement, we believe Congress should vote no on the deal,” Barry Curtiss-Lusher, ADL’s national chairman, and Jonathan Greenblatt, its national director, said in a statement released Thursday evening.
ADL last month had expressed reservations about the sanctions relief for nuclear restrictions deal reached July 14 between Iran and six major powers.
“While ADL believes the administration has addressed some of the questions we highlighted in its July 20 letter to Members of Congress, serious concerns remain, including the effectiveness of the verification process to deter Iranian violations; the credibility of U.S. deterrence in light of the deal; the sufficiency of the nuclear limitations on Iran over the long term; and Iran’s new legitimacy and renewed financial ability to support its extremist policies,” the statement said.
Congress has until late September to decide whether to reject the deal. President Barack Obama is campaigning for the deal while Republicans mostly oppose the deal.
The ADL joins the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the American Jewish Committee and B’nai B’rith International among centrist Jewish groups opposing the deal. A number of large Jewish bodies, including the Reform and Conservative movements, the Jewish Federations of North America and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, are still mulling the deal, although several have expressed concerns about it. The Orthodox Union and the Zionist Organization of America oppose the deal.
A number of liberal Jewish organizations, including J Street, Americans for Peace Now and Ameinu, are backing the Obama administration and supporting the deal.
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