Wasserman Schultz backs Iran deal

Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz will back the nuclear deal with Iran, ending speculation the top party official might break with President Obama on his signature foreign-policy priority.

{mosads}For weeks, the Florida Democrat had kept her decision close to the vest, calling it a “gut-wrenching, thought provoking process.” But the congresswoman had spent weeks discussing the issue with constituents, and said she believed supporting Obama’s deal would “most likely to prevent Iran from achieving their nuclear weapons goals.”

“In weighing all the information that I had in front of me, I concluded that the best thing to do is to vote in support of the Iran deal and make sure that we can put Iran years away from being a threshold nuclear state and ensure that we can more closely focus on their terrorist activity,” Wasserman Schultz said during a Sunday appearance on CNN’s State of the Union.”

Her decision represented a symbolic victory for Obama. He already had secured enough Democratic votes in the Senate last week to ensure Republicans wouldn’t be able to kill his nuclear agreement. And many other House Democrats have begun to voice support for the deal.

But the Iran issue had put Wasserman Schultz in a tricky spot, torn between the Democratic party and her district, which is home to a significant Jewish population that mostly is opposed to the deal.