U.S. Chamber of Commerce Will Not ‘Weigh In’ on Iran Deal

The United States Chamber of Commerce, America’s most powerful pro-business lobbying organization, has refused to engage in the battle of ideas over the Iranian nuclear deal.

“The Chamber has not weighed in with a position on the Iran nuclear accord legislation,” Chris Hoyler, the Chamber’s director of Media Relations, told Breitbart News late Tuesday.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has not yet responded to further questions from Breitbart News, which asked why the Chamber has not made a decision and if the lobbying outfit plans on “weighing in.”

Rarely has the corporate lobby commented on Iran-related issues, but when it has, the Chamber has opposed sanctions against the Mullahs.

In 2011, an Iranian official announced that he had received a letter from the U.S. Chamber, in which the group expressed its opposition to sanctions against the theocratic regime. “The economic atmosphere of the US and Europe is opposed to sanctions against Iran,” an Iranian official told state-run Fars News at the time, citing a letter he said he had received from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

And in 2010, the Chamber publicly rallied against new sanctions on Tehran. In a letter co-signed by the Chamber and addressed to two of President Obama’s National Security Council officials, a number of corporate lobbies warned that the deal could affect the Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im) in a negative manner. The bank has become deeply unpopular among conservatives and free marketeers, who reject Ex-Im due to its cronyist top-down nature.

The vast majority of the American people, along with a unanimous Republican opposition and a handful of prominent Democrats, stand opposed to the deal, polls indicate. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which will certainly be affected by the outcome of the legislation, however, will remain silent.