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Dwight Evans (D PA, 2nd)
“President Trump’s action is destructive, irresponsible and highlights his utter lack of experience in crafting foreign policy. There is a big difference between governing and campaigning and today’s announcement yet again demonstrates President Trump’s desire to react to situations without taking into account the magnitude of what such actions mean to the lives of Americans. I recognize how complex the Iran Nuclear Deal is, but it is important to remember this is not 2015; we cannot go back in time. We need to ask ourselves not whether we like or agree with the Iran Nuclear Deal, but whether our nation is better off without it. President Trump’s decision leaves our nation isolated internationally because our allies will not also re-impose sanctions in order to force Iran to renegotiate the deal. The President has demonstrated that he’s not ready for prime-time, and proven once again that he cannot see the bigger picture – if we leave the Iran Nuclear Deal, why should countries like North Korea believe that we can be trusted to keep our word? President Trump has no plan once the United States leaves the deal. He is risking our security in order to fulfill a campaign promise. Foreign policy is not a game of golf or a reality TV show. It’s time for President Trump to do what is best for the American people and start acting like a world leader."
Brian Fitzpatrick, (R PA, 8th)
“The nuclear deal with Iran, the world’s largest state-sponsor of terror, was misguided from the start and was rammed through despite the bipartisan objection of Congress and an overwhelming majority of the American people. But even after its enactment there have been serious concerns regarding its enforcement, stipulations and side-deals,” said Fitzpatrick. “Today’s hearing only highlighted the concerns our military and regional allies, like Israel, have about Iran and their geopolitical objectives. Congress needs to work together to keep Americans safe from rogue regimes and terror supporters hellbent on doing us harm.”
“The shortcomings of the JCPOA are numerous and well-known. Suffice to say, the deal places Iran on a trajectory to become as intractable a challenge as North Korea is today – and very possibly worse,” said General Charles F. Wald, USAF (Ret.), former Deputy Commander of U.S. European Command. “Iran is already moving more directly and brazenly against U.S. interests and our allies. This stems in part from what the JCPOA does: it removes the aforementioned restrictions on Tehran’s power projection resources. Yet this also results from what the JCPOA represents: the weakening of U.S. credibility to push back as Iran aggravates the growing security vacuum in the Middle East.”
As part of the National Defense Authorization Act that passed the House in July, Fitzpatrick successfully added language that would require an annual report to Congress regarding the extent of cooperation on nuclear programs, ballistic missile development, chemical and biological weapons development, or conventional weapons programs between Iran and North Korea. Also in July, Fitzpatrick backed bipartisan legislation to increase sanctions on Iran as well as North Korea and Russia.
Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE, 1st)
“Iran’s aggressive posturing throughout the Middle East has made it harder to trust a fragile nuclear agreement. Iran’s proxy military actions, support for violence, and ongoing ballistic missile taunting do not help during this tender period of testing a new relationship with the West. Broadly considered, Iran has generally complied with the structural components of the nuclear deal, but the aggression sadly undercuts the broader opportunity for even the mildest rapprochement.”
Fortenberry voted against the original Iran Nuclear Agreement in 2015.
Bill Foster (D-IL, 11th)
"As the only PhD physicist in Congress, I supported the Iran Deal after a review of its technical enforceability and its ability to functionally dismantle Iran’s nuclear weapons program. It has succeeded in every aspect of what was agreed to and has made the world safer thanks to the broad international coalition that made this deal a reality.
Despite President’s Trump’s acknowledgement that Iran is in full compliance with the terms of the agreement, he announced today that he will refuse to certify that compliance to Congress on the grounds that he personally does not believe that the deal is in our national interest. Furthermore, he threatened to unilaterally withdraw from the deal any time he wants. This sort of irresponsible behavior undermines the credibility of the U.S. as a stable and reliable negotiating partner and undercuts our efforts to negotiate agreements to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons throughout the world.
There is no doubt among the scientific and diplomatic community that the deal successfully rolled back Iran’s ability to develop a nuclear weapon. This deal gave us the ability to monitor Iran’s nuclear capability, so Iran no longer has the capability to produce a nuclear weapon without our knowledge. Iran has disconnected, removed, and placed in IAEA-monitored storage, two-thirds of its installed centrifuges, reduced their stockpile of low-enriched uranium by 98 percent, removed all fissile material, centrifuges, and enrichment infrastructure from the underground facility at Fordow. The calandria - the core of Iran’s heavy water nuclear reactor - has been removed and filled with concrete so it is now permanently inoperable. All these actions will be reversed if President Trump walks away from the deal.
There remains a long list of Iranian misbehaviors in the non-nuclear arena. They were never covered by the deal, because the international coalition that brought Iran to the negotiating table was focused only on the prevention of a nuclear Iran. This fact does not provide justification for Trump’s announcement today.
Fortunately, as long as Congress acts responsibly and refuses to take Trump’s bait, President Trump’s announcement today will have no direct effect on the Iran Nuclear Deal."
Trent Franks (R-AR, 8th)
“Before the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action was willed into being (it was never signed by Iran), the Clinton Administration orchestrated the wildly ineffectual ‘Agreed Framework’ with North Korea. Two decades later, the Hermit Kingdom is armed with a hydrogen bomb and is threatening to turn the United States to ‘ashes and darkness.’ History could not be clearer: appeasement policies do not work.
“The Iran Deal was not a treaty approved by Congress. President Trump has every right decertify Iranian compliance with the JCPOA. Moreover, I applaud his efforts.
“The Iranian regime has twice exceeded the amount of heavy water it is allowed to have under the deal. International inspectors are still denied access to all the pertinent military facilities, and there are hundreds of undeclared sites to which we have been denied access. Furthermore, Iran funnels money and arms throughout the region. Eighty percent of the pro-Assad regime forces fighting in Syria are Iranian proxies, and the commander of the massive Hash’d al Shaabi militia in Iraq is trained and backed in the IRGC and commanded by one Hadi Al-Ameri – the top lieutenant to the commander of Iran’s Quds Force. Iran’s motives are clear, and we are living in a fantasy land if we think the corrupt and despotic Iranian regime will ever call us a friend. To pretend there’s a ‘deal’ worth making with the genocidal theocrats in Tehran is delusional.
“Mr. Obama’s Iran Deal protected protocol to enrich uranium and produce plutonium on its own soil, paid them a $400 million ransom via cargo plane, freed up $100 billion for Iran to spend on exporting terrorism, and provided them a path to a nuclear weapon without having to violate the provisions of the Deal thanks to the sunset provisions. With that in mind, it’s not hard to see why the author of the Art of the Deal might want retract this one.”
Ruben Gallego (D-AZ, 7th)
“Though imperfect, the Iran deal is an important tool that until now has taken the Iranian nuclear threat off the table.
“All evidence points to the fact that Iran has so far complied with the agreement. Just last week, the Secretary of Defense told me that he believes Iran is in compliance, in an open hearing. None of the other signatories to the Deal – including our closest allies – believe Iran to have violated its terms. President Trump stands alone in this misinformed belief.
“To unring this bell, I look forward to working with more sober minds in Congress – Adam Smith, Mac Thornberry, Eliot Engel, Ed Royce, and others, of both parties – who have the power to salvage the Iran deal by not reimposing sanctions on an evil regime that is nevertheless, by all accounts, keeping up its end of the bargain. The stability of the Middle East and our credibility as a nation are at stake.
“It’s now up to Congress to save this deal. The alternatives are a nuclear Iran, an isolated United States, a war with Iran, or all of the above. That is no choice at all.”
Kay Granger (R-TX, 12th)
“Without a doubt, the so-called Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action was a bad agreement, and I am pleased that President Trump is taking action to reevaluate this dangerous deal. It has given Iran the green light on their nuclear program, as well as billions of dollars to prop up their crippled economy and fund terrorist organizations. As I said at the time, President Obama’s nuclear agreement with Iran jeopardized the safety and security of Americans and our allies throughout the world. I look forward to working with my colleagues in the House to do everything possible to ensure that Iran never has the ability to use nuclear weapons against the U.S., Israel or our allies.”
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