House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, a senior American democratic politician from Maryland is in Israel leading a group of 21 other congressmen from his party on a week long visit, media reports indicated on Sunday, August 9th. The trip is sponsored by the AIPAC.

In light of the upcoming Congressional vote by September 17th on the deal reached between Tehran and six world powers, including the US, Iran has been one of the dominant issues during the trip.

The deal curbs Iran’s nuclear program and allows for international inspections in exchange for lifting sanctions, but leaves Tehran with the ability to develop atomic weapons in the future. 

“There is a great degree of controversy [over the Iran deal],” Hoyer said on Thursday.

Some members of the group have already made up their minds, while others like Hoyer remain undecided, the congressman said.

“This is a very important vote for the Middle East,” Hoyer said.

Among the issues that concern him, Hoyer said, is the reliability of the inspections of Iranian nuclear sites, the ability to reinstate sanctions should violations occur and overall consequences for Iran should it break the deal, Hoyer said.

“Our [the US] policy has not changed. A nuclear armed Iran is unacceptable. The issue is does this agreement support that objective or undermine it. That is the decision that Congress will make. Once it is made all parties will move on to accommodate the reality,” Hoyer said.

“I have worked with Republican leaders for many years to ensure that decisions [on Israel] are almost overwhelmingly supported by both Democrats and Republicans,” he said.

On Thursday the group met with Palestinian Authority Finance Minister Shukri Bishara to talk about a two state resolution to the Israeli Palestinian conflict. “We found him very open and we understood it to be a useful meeting. We are certainly concerned about the two state solution,” Hoyer said.

Sharon told the congressional delegation that maintaining troops and settlers in Gaza was not in Israel’s best long term security interests, said Hoyer.