Nearly Every Congressional Republican Wants Trump To Show No Mercy With Iran Deal

This week, every GOP senator except one and 177 out of 220 GOP members of the House signed a letter to President Donald Trump supporting his past statements and urging that Iran’s capacity to enrich uranium be permanently eliminated.

The effort was spearheaded by Nebraska Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts and House Republican Study Committee Chair Rep. August Pfluger (R-TX). Kentucky GOP Sen. Rand Paul was the only Republican senator who would not sign the letter.

The signatories acknowledged Trump’s “strong support” for “efforts to secure a deal with Iran that dismantles its nuclear program, and to reinforce the explicit warnings that you and officials in your administration have issued that the regime must permanently give up any capacity for enrichment.”

After noting Trump’s first-term withdrawal from the “deeply broken” Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and his imposition of maximum pressure on the regime, the signatories pointed out that the Obama JCPOA deal “allowed Iran to sell oil, provided waivers allowing third countries to help Iran build out its nuclear program, and included the termination of United Nations sanctions on the regime.”

They noted that Trump’s maximum pressure campaign had deterred Iran from making substantial nuclear progress. “Tragically, the Biden administration systematically undid that pressure, functionally re-implementing the nuclear deal. They immediately rescinded your decision to reimpose U.N. sanctions, allowed Iran to sell oil at JCPOA-levels, and even re-issued waivers allowing Iran to build out its nuclear program,” they continued.

“As you predicted, those policies indeed allowed Iran to reach the brink of nuclear breakout, which is where they are today,” they asserted. “The scope and breadth of Iran’s nuclear buildout have made it impossible to verify any new deal that allows Iran to continue enriching uranium. In its most recent report, published on February 26, the International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed that because of Iran’s activities over the last four years, ‘the Agency has lost continuity of knowledge in relation to the production and current inventory of centrifuges, rotors and bellows, heavy water and UOC, which it will not be possible to restore.’”

They quoted Trump’s National Security Presidential Memorandum that stated, “Iran’s nuclear program, including its enrichment- and reprocessing-related capabilities and nuclear-capable missiles, poses an existential danger to the United States and the entire civilized world,” then additionally quoted him saying recently that only “full dismantlement” of those capabilities would be acceptable.

“We cannot afford another agreement that enables Iran to play for time, as the JCPOA did. The Iranian regime should know that the administration has Congressional backing to ensure their ability to enrich uranium is permanently eliminated,” they concluded.