House Speaker John Boehner responding to President Obama’s threat of vetoing any action by congress to impose tougher sanctions on Iran. He told a private meeting of GOP lawmakers that Congress would move ahead on new penalties against Iran despite Obama’s warning that any legislation would scuttle diplomatic negotiations over the country’s nuclear program.
“You may have seen that on Friday, the president warned us not to move ahead with sanctions on Iran, a state sponsor of terror,” Boehner told colleagues, according to his office. “His exact message to us was: `Hold your fire.’ He expects us to stand idly by and do nothing while he cuts a bad deal with Iran.
“Two words: `Hell no!’ … We’re going to do no such thing,” the speaker said.
The U.S. and other Western countries believe that Iran is intent on trying to develop nuclear weapons. Tehran claims its nuclear program is peaceful and exists only to produce energy for civilian use.