Now that Secretary of State John Kerry has forged a tentative nuclear deal with Iran, will Congress sink its chances of survival?
Probably not, said Charles Sennott, head of The GroundTruth Project.
"What I'm hearing is Congress will approve this, there will be lots of protests and people like Chuck Schumer who will throw a fuss about it," Sennott said. "The lay of the land is: it will go through, with a lot of friction."
The sticking point tipping many politicians into the 'yes' camp, Sennott said, has been the lack of a perceived alternative.
"The thing that interests me in the whole lay of the land is ultimately everyone is asking the question: what else is there? What's the other option?" he said.
"This is such a way to push back at this Republican Party of 'no' and say: what do you propose? Where do you want to take this? The other option is what, a military strike? What that could do to the region, you don't have to be an expert in the Middle East to understand what kind of conflagration that could be," he continued.
Another element Congress should keep in mind, Sennott says, is the lasting impact a successful deal with the United States could have on opening Iran's closed regime.
"A lot of people who are analysts of Iran and particularly people I've gotten to know who are from Iran believe that opening to the west could really trigger a movement that will finally say, 'this country's majority wants to throw this theocracy off its back and have a much different approach to governance than they have now," Sennott said.
To hear more from Charles Sennott, tune in to Boston Public Radio above.
