Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., helped Democrats secure the 41 votes needed to block passage of a disapproval resolution against the agreement between Iran and six other nations.

Blumenthal's support follows that of Sen. Chris Murphy's, D-Conn., which came about a month ago.

Blumenthal made the announcement Tuesday in Hartford, and in prepared statement said: "I will vote to support the proposed agreement concerning Iran's nuclear program and against the resolution of disapproval before the Senate. My two paramount goals have been to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran and do so by peaceful means. I believe the proposed agreement, using diplomacy, not military force, is the best path now available to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran."

Federal lawmakers returned to Washington on Tuesday following a five-week summer recess.

"I'm very pleased that it appears we have 41 votes at least for agreement," Murphy told reporters during a press call Tuesday. "I think the jury is still out as to whether all those senators will also vote against cloture."

Cloture is a procedure that allows the Senate to end a debate with a two-thirds majority vote, in other words avoiding a filibuster.

During a speech at the American Enterprise Institute Tuesday, former vice president Dick Cheney called the agreement "madness," according to news reports.

Following a five-day trip to the Middle East paid for by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Murphy said Tuesday "every single political leader" he met with in the region was in favor of the Iran nuclear agreement.

Murphy spoke to reporters by phone just a few hours after Blumenthal and two other Democratic senators, including Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich, with whom he traveled to the Middle East, announced their support for the agreement.

He debriefed reporters on his trip and answered questions about the Iran deal, anti-Islamic State military operations and the Syrian refugee crisis.

While the leaders he met with in the Middle East have reservations about the agreement, Murphy said, they all said that the region would be safer with the agreement than without it.

Ranking member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on the Near East, South Asia, Central Asia and Counterterrorism, Murphy returned Sunday from the trip, with Peters.

The senators made stops in Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Jordan, including a visit to a Syrian refugee camp there.

Murphy showed his support Tuesday for Blumenthal and Peters making the same decision he had.

"There wasn't an hour that didn't go by during the trip," Murphy said, where he and Peters weren't talking about the agreement. He praised Blumenthal for the "deliberate path" he took in reaching his decision.

While the deal is "ultimately about stopping Iran from getting a nuclear weapon," Murphy said, if Iran cheats, the U.S. can put back in place the sanctions against the country or take Iran's nuclear weapons program out "militarily."

Murphy and Peters started their trip in the UAE, where they met with a number of Emirati officials and visited the multilateral counterterrorism center there.

The senators then traveled to Qatar, where they met with members of the Qatari government and visited the Al Udeid Air Base in Doha.

They spent two days in Baghdad meeting with U.S. military and State Department officials, and Iraqi political leaders, including a "long meeting" with Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi.

They ended their trip in Jordan, and spent time at the United Nations-run Zaatari refugee camp, which is currently home to 80,000 Syrian refugees, mostly children, according to Murphy.

"After this nuclear agreement, we are going to be in a more important position to try to broker peace inside Iraq or Syria or Yemen," Murphy said. "Any legitimacy added to the United State by enactment of the nuclear deal is going to be stolen from us on the cold heartedness in the Syrian humanitarian crisis."

Calling the condition of Zaatari "abysmal," Murphy said that many refugees there have chosen to return to Syria "because they have absolutely given up hope." Other refugees have opted to head for Europe, he said.

The World Food Program has run out of money, according to Murphy, who said that the program would still be feeding refugees in the camp but not the one million who were living outside of the camp in Jordan.

Murphy called for a "more robust humanitarian response" by the United States and said we should fully fund the World Food Program and bring "tens of thousands of refugees safely on American soil."

He emphasized, though, that U.S. officials would have to screen "every single one" of the refugees very carefully.

j.bergman@theday.com

Twitter: @JuliaSBergman