WASHINGTON (AP) — It's a done deal, yet opponents of the Iran nuclear agreement won't go quietly.

The 60-day congressional review period has expired, and last week the State Department outlined its plan to put in place an accord that aims to prevent Iran from becoming nuclear-armed. Congress is poised to start cranking out legislation to reinstate sanctions or shore up what some lawmakers say is an ill-fated pact with a state supporter of terrorism.

Sen. Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has begun a series of hearings on the U.S. role and strategy in the Middle East that will examine the deal's implications.

"It's going to take a while. It's a very substantive issue," said Corker, R-Tenn., who opposed the deal. "It will be a complex piece of legislation."

Confronted by Democratic opposition, Corker said, "Let's face it. It's going to be one bite at the apple."

Republicans failed when Senate Democrats banded together to block a resolution of disapproval from ever reaching President Barack Obama. On Thursday, the State Department said Obama would start issuing waivers on Oct. 18 so the U.S. is ready to grant sanctions relief if Tehran meets its obligations to curb its nuclear program.

Iran has to uninstall thousands of centrifuges at its facility at Natanz, its main site for enriching uranium; convert an underground nuclear site at Fordo into a research facility; and redesign its heavy water reactor at Arak so it cannot produce weapons-grade plutonium. Iran also has to ship its stockpile of enriched uranium abroad, and comply with an International Atomic Energy Agency investigation into its past nuclear weapons work.

It's not clear how long that will take.

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If the IAEA finds that Iran has complied with key nuclear commitments, then sanctions imposed by the U.S., United Nations and Europe on Iran's energy, financial, shipping, auto and other sectors are to be suspended.

"This so-called 'Implementation Day' won't come for six to 12 months," said Mark Dubowitz, a sanctions expert and an opponent of the deal with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington-based policy institute.

One idea being discussed in Congress calls for shoring up oversight of Iran's compliance. Another measure would reauthorize the Iran Sanctions Act. The law was passed in 1996 to pressure foreign companies not to invest in Iran's oil and gas industries; it has since been expanded.

Other legislation being weighed would strengthen security for Israel, which Iran has threatened to destroy, and for U.S. allies in the Persian Gulf worried about Iran gaining influence in the Mideast as a result of the deal.

"Although the congressional review period may be over, now the real work begins," Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., said in a speech Thursday at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Coons said preventing and deterring Iran from cheating must be a priority and even "marginal cheating and ambiguous evasions of the deal" must be met with a heavy club. "Iran must not be left with any doubt that it will feel the pain of sanctions from the entire global community the moment it violates the agreement," he said.

He also wants the U.S. to improve Israel's ability to strike Iranian targets; ensure Israel's access to ordnance and aircraft needed to deter an Iranian attack; and provide for the sale of additional F-35s, plus more funding for Israel's array of anti-rocket and missile defense systems.

To further stabilize the region in the wake of the deal, Coons said the U.S. needs to strengthen the Gulf states' ability to counter threats from Iran.

New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez, one of only four Senate Democrats to oppose the deal, wants Congress to renew the Iran Sanctions Act "to ensure that we have an effective snapback option."

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said he will propose legislation with Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, to address some of the deal's "shortfalls." Blumenthal and Cardin are Jewish and faced heavy lobbying from their constituents. In the end Blumenthal supported the deal; Cardin opposed it.

Blumenthal said the two will offer legislation to provide an effective way to put sanctions back into place if Iran cheats, ensure strict adherence to the agreement, and enhance security assistance to Israel, including new joint-training exercises and inviting Israeli pilots to train to fly long-range bombers.

Looming above all this debate is whether the agreement will last when Obama's successor walks into the Oval Office in 16 months.

Republican presidential candidates Ted Cruz, Scott Walker and Mike Huckabee have promised to abandon the accord. Asked if he would authorize a strike against Iran's nuclear facilities, Sen. Lindsey Graham replied: "If I believed they were trying to break out and get a bomb, absolutely. And here's the most important thing: They know I would if I had to."

Istanbul (AFP) - Thousands are expected to take part in an anti-terror demonstration in Istanbul Sunday, in a rally that will gauge the level of popular support for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's two-month-old offensive against Kurdish militants.

The "one voice against terrorism" demonstration in Yenikapi Square, which will be addressed by Erdogan, is expected to dwarf a similar rally held in the capital Ankara Thursday in which some protesters railed against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which the president has likened to the extremist Islamic State Group.

While participants in the Ankara gathering were under strict orders to leave all political slogans and emblems at home, the Istanbul rally is shaping up as a warm-up for Turkey's second general election campaign in under six months.

Erdogan's Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) is seeking to reverse the losses it sustained in the last election in June, which stripped it of its governing majority, forcing it into coalition talks that ended in failure, triggering another vote on November 1.

Analysts have linked the military's air strikes and ground operations against PKK strongholds in northern Iraq and southeast Turkey, which shattered a two-year ceasefire, to the AKP's electoral setback.

Erdogan launched the offensive after a suicide bombing in the town of Suruc on the border with Syria in late July that was blamed on the Islamic State group -- an arch-foe of the PKK and its US-backed Syrian affiliate.

While declaring his fight to be with all "terrorists", Erdogan’s battle is seen as being chiefly with the liberal, pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) which took votes from the AKP in June to scoop up 80 seats, denying Erdogan the large majority he had sought to boost the powers of the presidency.

"The battle with terror is a pretext. The aim is revenge for (the) June 7 (election)," Cengiz Candar, a commentator with the online newspaper Radikal, declared.

The government has accused the HDP of being a front for the PKK, allegations the party -- which also made a strong showing among non-Kurds -- rejects.

While the timing of the offensive against the rebels has raised eyebrows in Turkey and abroad, the magnitude of the PKK’s response has caused widespread anger and dismay.

Over 120 soldiers and police have been killed in PKK bombings and shootings since the escalation began, according to pro-government media. The government for its part claims to have killed over a thousand rebels.

The violence has raised fears that the three-decade-old conflict, which has left around 40,000 people dead since the PKK took up arms in 1984, is back on in earnest.

Writing in the leading independent Hurriyet daily this week, columnist Paul Iddon warned Erdogan against any attempt to undermine the HDP, the first pro-Kurdish party to win seats in parliament.

Doing so, he warned, could "refuel a hitherto declining desire for separation in Turkey's southeast".

Tehran (AFP) - The head of the UN atomic watchdog held talks Sunday with top officials in Tehran about unresolved concerns over previous "possible military dimensions" to Iran's nuclear programme.

International Atomic Energy Agency chief Yukiya Amano's visit comes as a December 15 deadline looms for completion of its long-running inquiry into allegations that at least until 2003, Iran conducted research into how to build a bomb.

Iran has said the accusations -- including that it carried out explosives tests at the Parchin military base -- are groundless and based on malicious intelligence provided by its enemies.

Amano held talks with Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and President Hassan Rouhani as well as atomic agency chief Ali Akbar Salehi.

Under a deal sealed in July with six world powers aimed at ending a 13-year standoff, Iran agreed to curbs on its nuclear activities that experts say would make any dash to produce a weapon all but impossible.

Amano also addressed a 12-member committee set up by the Iranian parliament to examine the deal but the meeting was held behind closed doors.

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Rouhani was quoted by the official IRNA news agency as telling Amano that Iran would implement the deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and "we hope that you will fairly supervise the accord's implementation".

"We do not seek any demand beyond the safeguards agreement between Iran and the agency," Iran's president added, referring to IAEA verification measures, arguing that the "legitimacy of Iran's peaceful nuclear activities had been proven under past supervision".

Rouhani also said Iran was committed to voluntary implementation of an additional protocol under which the IAEA is granted access and information about states' nuclear sites.

As of June 2015, additional protocols were in force with 126 countries and another 20 are signatories but have yet to bring it into force, according to the IAEA.

Ahead of Amano's visit, the IAEA said the discussions in Tehran would "focus on... clarification of past and present outstanding issues regarding Iran's nuclear programme."

On September 9, the UN agency said Iran must resolve ambiguities over its past nuclear activities before crippling UN and Western sanctions can be lifted.

The IAEA will also have the task of confirming that Iran has scaled down its nuclear activities in accordance with the deal struck with Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States plus Germany.

Iranian lawmakers are in the final stages of reviewing the text of the nuclear agreement. It is not clear if there will be a parliamentary vote.

Earlier this month in the United States, the Republican-led House of Representatives rejected the nuclear deal in a purely symbolic vote held a day after the Senate cleared the way for the accord to come into force.

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Disasters at sea claimed the lives of dozens of migrants on Sunday, as desperate people fleeing war and poverty braved the risky journey to seek sanctuary in Europe.

Thirteen migrants died after their boat collided with a ferry off the Turkish coast, officials there said, while the Greek coast guard fanned out in the choppy waters of the Aegean Sea searching for another 24 people missing after their boat sank off the island of Lesbos.

Coast guard officials said nearly three dozen people were rescued in the two incidents, which followed another sinking near Lesbos Saturday, in which a 5-year-old girl drowned. Two bodies were found in Greek waters, but authorities aren't yet sure which shipwreck killed them.

The events highlight the risks that those fleeing the Middle East, Africa and Asia are willing to take in hopes of reaching sanctuary in Europe. Men, women and children continue to take the perilous sea journey despite the fact that thousands of earlier migrants find themselves blocked by closed border crossings in the Balkans.

Hungary's decision to shut its border with Serbia on Sept. 15 set off a chain reaction in Croatia and Slovenia that has forced people fleeing violence in their homelands to rush from one European border to the next as they desperately try to find their way north before the rules change again.

Thousands are on the move all over southeastern Europe as authorities struggle to respond. About 15,000 migrants crossed into Austria from Hungary and Croatia over the weekend.

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Migrant whose boat stalled at sea while crossing from Turkey to Greece swim to approach the shore of …

Hungary erected yet another steel barrier, now at Beremend border post with Croatia, complete with a giant steel door to control the flow of migrants. The gate slowed the flow. But they just kept coming.

In the Austrian border village of Nickelsdorf, people arrived by foot after completing a half-an-hour walk from the Hungarian town of Hegyeshalom. From there, buses and trains take them to emergency shelters in Vienna and other parts of Austria.

The asylum seekers lined up, waiting for buses to relocate them across the country. Austrian soldiers stood alongside. Local officials struggled to find them places to stay, since many camps across Austria are already overcrowded.

Mahat, a lab technician from Damascus, was one of the thousands waiting to get onto the buses.

"We came here only to get a new life," said Mahat, who didn't want to give his last name fearing repercussions by the Syrian government.

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Migrant whose boat stalled at sea while crossing from Turkey to Greece swim to approach the shore of …

The 47-year-old said he had been trekking through Croatia with another 5,000 people before he eventually made his way to Nickelsdorf. He said he didn't care where in Europe he would end up as long as he could live in peace and find a job.

Mahat said he was originally living and working with his family in the United Arab Emirates until his father died in Syria three years ago.

"I came to Syria to put my father in the ground. Then the government took my passport and they cut it. So three years I was suffering inside," he said. "When I got the chance I just ran away and came here."

Conditions along the borders worsened, as days of intense heat gave way to rain and plummeting temperatures. Along the border in the Croatian town of Tovarnik, volunteers handed out tents and warm clothes

"Unfortunately we sleep here on the ground without anything. It was very cold," Muhammad Dakiri, a Syrian migrant, said. "Suddenly the weather has turned to cold and raining. We couldn't sleep well because in an hour or half an hour we wake up because we're feeling cold."

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Migrant whose boat stalled at sea while crossing from Turkey to Greece approach the shore of the isl …

Meanwhile, leaders all across the region are sniping at one another, underscoring the sense of crisis and disarray in the days before European leaders meet to discuss the crisis.

Hungary's erection of razor-wire fences is deeply straining its ties with neighboring countries, who feel the problem of the huge flow of migrants is being unfairly pushed onto them. After completing a fence along the border with Serbia, Hungary is now building fences along its borders with Croatia and Romania.

After lashing out against Croatian officials, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto is now trading barbs with his Romanian counterpart over the fence.

Romanian Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu on Saturday called the border closure an "autistic and unacceptable act" that violated the spirit of the European Union.

"We would expect more modesty from a foreign minister whose prime minister is currently facing trial," Szijjarto said. That was a reference to corruption charges filed recently against Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta.

"We are a state that is more than 1,000 years old that throughout its history has had to defend not only itself, but Europe as well many times," Szijjarto added. "That's the way it's going to be now, whether the Romanian foreign minister likes it or not."

The Hungarian Foreign Ministry has called in the Romanian ambassador for a consultation on Monday.

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Danica Kirka in Zagreb, Croatia; Vanessa Gera in Budapest, Hungary; Raphael Satter in Istanbul; Philipp Jenne, in Nickelsdorf, Austria; George Jahn in Vienna and Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin contributed to this story.

Migrants feared dead after sea disasters