Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave a cautious endorsement of the nuclear deal with Iran on Tuesday following a meeting on Capitol Hill with House Democrats. 
 
 
 
 "This is an important step in putting a lid on Iran's nuclear program," Clinton told reporters in an impromptu appearance before the cameras. 
 
 
 
 
 
 ADVERTISEMENT 
 
 But, she emphasized, "We have to treat this as an ongoing enforcement effort."Clinton said she will get a briefing later in the morning from national security advisers about the details of the deal.Clinton said that there are still "concerns" about Iran's state sponsorship of terrorism and imprisonment of Americans on questionable charges."That bad behavior is something we have to address," Clinton said. 
 
 Democrats who met with Clinton said she strongly endorsed the nuclear accord during their meeting with her. 
 
 "She endorsed it — full-throated — and described her own role in helping to build the coalition … that led to this," Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) said leaving the closed-door meeting in the Capitol. "She laid out, 'Look, the alternative is unacceptable, and this is actually a good deal.' That's her words." 
 
 "She was not equivocal at all in her support for the agreement as she understands it," Connolly added. 
 
 Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.), who voiced his own skepticism, also said Clinton is backing the agreement. 
 
 "She did say the core elements are worth supporting," Israel said. "She believes that we have an obligation to review all the details." 
 
 Reached Monday night, the historic deal is designed to block Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon in exchange for the removal of international trade sanctions. 
 
 Liberal Democrats are praising the agreement as a big step in preventing a nuclear-armed Iran. 
 
 "With this agreement we have an opportunity to avert the unthinkable alternative of yet another war in the region and advance the broader goal of containing nuclear weapons globally," said Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.). 
 
 Republicans, by contrast, wasted no time panning the deal. Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) is warning it will "fuel a nuclear arms race." And Rep. Steve Scalise (La.), the House Republican whip, is vowing to sink it in the House. 
 
 "We will fight hard to reject this deal with everything that we have," Scalise tweeted Tuesday morning. 
 
 Congress now has 60 days to review the accord. 
 
 Israel said Clinton's position on the issue will hold great sway among congressional Democrats ahead of that vote. He described her influence as second only to President Obama on the issue. 
 
 "There's no question that her opinion is critically important," he said. 
 
 One House Democrat, who spoke anonymously in order to discuss the private conversation, suggested Clinton's message to the Democrats carried stronger tones of support than her cautious public remarks. 
 
 
 
 "She was highlighting the positives within the report, and it sounded to me as if she would be more inclined to support it," the lawmaker said. 
 
 Clinton told the Democrats she'll be briefed more thoroughly on the agreement in a Tuesday morning conference call with White House officials and former secretaries of State. 
 
 "She'll probably have more to say after that," Connolly said. 
 
 Updated at 10:53 a.m. ||||| Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reportedly told Democrats on Tuesday that she strongly supports the president's nuclear deal with Iran. 
 
 Indeed, according to one lawmaker who talked to Bloomberg, Clinton gave a "full-throated endorsement" of the compromise. 
 
 The fact that Clinton and President Barack Obama are unified on the issue could be crucial for the agreement to survive the Republican-controlled Congress. 
 
 Once Congress receives the details of the deal, it will have 60 days to debate and vote on it. 
 
 If Congress sends a joint resolution of disapproval to Obama, it would trigger a new timeline. He would have 12 days to veto the resolution, something he promised he would do Tuesday morning. Then, Congress would have 10 days to vote to override his veto. 
 
 Overriding a presidential veto requires a two-thirds majority of both chambers of Congress, so Obama would then need 34 allied senators to block the override. If both chambers vote to override, it would prevent Obama from suspending sanctions on Iran related to its nuclear program. 
 
 Some congressional Democrats are more hawkish on foreign policy matters than Obama, giving hope to Republicans crafting a bipartisan pushback against the landmark agreement. However, Democrats would likely have a harder time bucking both Obama and Clinton, who is their party's front-runner in the 2016 presidential race. 
 
 "It's EXTREMELY unlikely there will be enough" congressional Democrats willing to cross both party leaders, NBC News' senior political editor, Mark Murray, wrote on Tuesday. 
 
 Clinton's previous foreign policy hawkishness, especially relative to Obama, also potentially gives her voice weight with skeptical congressional Democrats. Politico's Michael Crowley recently documented many of Clinton's past positions casting doubt on Tehran's intentions. 
 
 "As the talks unfolded in 2014 and 2015, Clinton largely avoided commenting on specifics about the deal. But she did hint at a harder position than the one Obama wound up accepting," Crowley wrote Tuesday. "Notably absent from Clinton’s rhetoric has been any hint that she sees Obama’s historic agreement as a possible first step toward restoring friendly relations between Washington and Tehran for the first time since the 1970s, a view held by some in Obama’s administration." 
 
 On the other hand, it would have been difficult for Clinton to torpedo Obama's Iran deal by publicly criticizing it. As Obama's former secretary of state, the president's foreign-policy legacy is intertwined with her own. And Clinton previously voiced support for the framework of the agreement. 
 
 The agreement — struck early Tuesday morning by the US, Iran, and other world powers — aims to significantly curb Tehran's ability to produce nuclear weapons in exchange for a rollback of economic sanctions. At a Capitol Hill press conference later in the day, Clinton called it an "important step" in the ongoing effort to contain Iran's nuclear program. 
 
 "I think that this is an important step that puts the lid on Iran's nuclear programs." she said. "All in all, I think that we have to look at this seriously, evaluate it carefully, but I believe based on what I know now that this is an important step." 
 
 Additional reporting by Brett LoGiurato. ||||| WASHINGTON (AP) — The Republican-controlled Congress can't block the complex nuclear agreement the Obama administration announced with Iran on Tuesday, but a veto struggle is a near certainty as lawmakers try to undermine the deal by insisting that numerous sanctions remain in place. 
 
 FILE - In this July 9,2015 file photo, House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington. Boehner is issuing a warning to the White House, saying that if... (Associated Press) 
 
 A law that President Barack Obama signed earlier this year gives him five days to submit the agreement to Congress for review. It also provides for a condensed, 60-day period for Congress to hold hearings and consider legislation that would bar him from lifting sanctions that lawmakers have enacted in recent years. 
 
 Republicans and Democrats both noted the measure would be subject to a 60-vote requirement in the Senate. The GOP holds 54 seats, meaning party leaders would need the votes of at least six Democrats to pass the legislation, technically known as a resolution of disapproval. 
 
 Obama has already said he'll veto any legislation to leave sanctions in place. A two-thirds majority in each house would be required to override him. As an example, that means the administration would be assured of prevailing if it could hold the votes of 34 Democrats in the Senate. 
 
 A close vote on overriding a veto is likely, and Obama's hopes would rest in part on the views of Democrats with close ties to Israel, which vehemently opposes the lifting of any sanctions. Among them is Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, a member of the leadership, who issued a non-committal statement saying he would "carefully study the agreement before making an informed decision." 
 
 Overwhelming Republican opposition is likely. 
 
 "It's going to hand a dangerous regime billions of dollars in sanctions relief while paving the way for a nuclear Iran," House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said of the deal. 
 
 At its core, the agreement the United States and other world powers struck with Iran would lift crippling economic sanctions in exchange for concessions designed to curb Tehran's nuclear program and prevent it from acquiring an atomic weapon. 
 
 Until work is finished on legislation to disapprove the deal, Obama is prohibited by law from waiving or suspending any of the sanctions that Congress has previously voted to apply against Iran. 
 
 He is free to lift other measures that he or former presidents have put into place on their own, but Iran could then presumably say the international agreement had been violated. 
 
 According to the Treasury Department, some sanctions have been in place for decades, including an import embargo on Iranian-origin goods and services imposed by President Ronald Reagan in 1987. 
 
 The struggle in Congress over the nuclear deal is unlikely to be the final political battle, with the issue all but certain to reverberate into the 2016 presidential election. 
 
 Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Rodham Clinton called the agreement an "important step." The former secretary of state said it would end up "putting the lid on Iran's nuclear program." 
 
 Most if not all Republican presidential hopefuls are likely to oppose it. 
 
 One, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, issued a statement saying that "Iran's Supreme Leader should know that a future American president will not be bound by this diplomatic retreat." 
 
 ____ 
 
 Eds: AP reporters Deb Riechmann and Donna Cassata contributed to this story.
– Hillary Clinton met with congressional Democrats on Capitol Hill today and gave what one described as a "full-throated" endorsement of the Iran nuclear deal, reports the Hill. Clinton's public comments were a bit more measured: "This is an important step in putting a lid on Iran's nuclear program," she said, before adding that she still has "concerns" about Iran's behavior. Still, Clinton's support of the deal might well ensure its survival, writes Colin Campbell at Business Insider. Here's the rationale: Congress has 60 days to review the deal, and while it can't block the agreement, it can try to "undermine" it by refusing to lift sanctions on Iran, reports the AP. President Obama already has promised a veto in such a scenario. To override, Republicans would need to pick up Democratic votes, and while some of the more hawkish Democrats might be willing to buck Obama, they probably won't be willing to go against their party's sitting president and its 2016 frontrunner, writes Campbell. In fact, it's "EXTREMELY unlikely" that would happen, tweets Mark Murray of NBC News.