Ernst believe agreement provided ‘pathway’ to nuclear arms for Iran

CEDAR RAPIDS - Sen. Joni Ernst accused President Barack Obama of 'fear-mongering” in his effort to win approval of the Iran nuclear agreement.

In a news conference Thursday, the Iowa Republican also predicted Congress will reject the pact but may not have the votes to override Obama's veto of a 'resolution of disapproval.”

Ernst, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has asked several witnesses about the president framing the debate as a choice between accepting the agreement Secretary of State John Kerry and allies negotiated with Iran or going to war. Many of them have said they don't agree with that assessment.

'It is a faulty premise to accept this notion that we must accept the Iran deal or go to war,” Ernst said.

Options include more diplomacy to continue negotiations with Iran or to continue the economic sanctions that appear to have been working, she added.

'Of course, there is the military operation, which is the only thing the president is focused on, the go-to-war option,” said Ernst, a lieutenant colonel in the Iowa National Guard.

She's also concerned that the United States hasn't achieved 'the original intent of these negotiations … that there would be absolutely no enrichment of uranium.”

'Somewhere along the line, all of that has changed,” Ernst said. 'Somehow we have provided a pathway for not only nuclear armaments but started a conventional arms race in the Middle East.”

At one point in her news conference, Ernst apologized that she 'got up on my soapbox.”

'You can tell I'm passionate,” she said. 'I don't see any good coming from this deal.”

Ernst called the coming vote on the nuclear agreement 'one of the most significant votes we'll take probably in anyone's career whether it's a new senator like me or a senator who has been in the Senate for a very long time.”

'This will affect not only our generation, but generations to come,” she said.

Congress has until Sept. 17 to approve a resolution either supporting or rejecting the deal. Members of Congress will return from their summer recess Sept. 8.