Nuclear Fight Has Weakened AIPAC, Says Former U.S. Senator

Claim that Iran's nuclear program has military objectives fabricated by Netanyahu, says former Democratic senator Mike Gravel.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and other pro-Israel lobbying groups in the United States are losing their influence in Washington as a result of their all-out fight against the Iran nuclear agreement, according to former Democratic senator Mike Gravel of Alaska.

“The majority of the American public is for this deal and that AIPAC has spent so much money to try and reverse that, I think is proving that AIPAC is becoming less effective on American policy,” Gravel said on Wednesday during a phone interview with the Iranian English-language news network Press TV.

“I’m very optimistic that the United States will go ahead and sustain this agreement,” he added.

Fifty-five percent of Americans want U.S. lawmakers in Congress to approve the nuclear agreement, according to a new survey released on Tuesday by the University of Maryland.

Congress is currently reviewing the agreement and is expected to vote on it by September 17. President Barack Obama, who has vowed to veto congressional rejection of the agreement, is one vote short of the Senate minority needed to sustain a veto.

Gravel, who served two terms in Congress from 1969 to 1981, said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fabricated the accusations that Iran has military objectives in its nuclear program.

“This whole issue is a fabricated issue by Netanyahu that Iran wanted to get the bomb,” Gravel said.

“Iran has never moved to get the bomb, there’s no intelligence organization who has reported that there’s any effort by Iran to acquire the bomb,” he emphasized.

Obama has repeatedly criticized Netanyahu for his opposition to the accord and his efforts to block it in Congress.

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