Today, @POTUS boldly told the world that the United States will not be bound by an agreement that advances the interests of an enemy committed to the destruction of our nation and our allies.
I commend President Trump for exiting the Obama Iranian nuclear deal and for his commitment to confronting Iran’s "Death to America" regime.
The Obama Iran deal has been a catastrophe.
It gave Iran’s despotic regime the resources to expand across the Middle East, all the way up to the borders of our closest allies in the region, and created an incentive for the international community to turn a blind eye to Iranian military activities and atrocities.
It provided Iran with vast resources that it could funnel into missile tests that could enable them to launch a nuclear weapon on the American homeland.
It prohibited us from using our most powerful sanctions against the full range of Iranian aggression, but only imposed restrictions against some of Iran’s nuclear activities – and even then, only temporarily. As a result, the region is now potentially on the brink of war.
The deal was also unenforceable on its own terms.
It trusted the Iranians to enforce restrictions against themselves, and as a result – as the recent presentation by Israeli Prime Minister @Netanyahu made clear – significant parts of Iran’s nuclear weapons program went undetected.
The terms also included incentives and concessions to sweeten the deal even further for Iran, including placing some of their nuclear activities under international sponsorship.
There is little doubt that Iran poses an immediate threat to the United States.
Iran is the world’s foremost state sponsors of terrorism and has been caught plotting to launch attacks on American soil. They have sought to acquire nuclear weapons. They continue to hold American citizens hostage.
Iran's money laundering and terror financing operations poison the global financial system that we rely on for continued prosperity.
They have set up and funded proxies across the Middle East – Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, Hamas in Gaza – who attack our allies and have launched missiles at our ships.
They have seized and harassed our sailors in the Arabian Gulf. They engage in cyber warfare against us, our companies, and our interests. Their proxies smuggle drugs into the United States, eroding our health and degrading our society.
They boast about having seized Arab capitals and creating a crescent of Shia control. Their forces launched an armed drone into Israel, arguably an act of war.
Now begins the difficult work of undoing the damage caused by the deal and rolling back the gains it enabled Iran to make. We must re-impose tough sanctions that target Iran’s regime.
We must ensure that the U.S. and our allies are equipped to combat not only illicit conventional weapons transfers and ballistic missile tests, but the war Iran has been waging across the region.
We must prioritize the release of all unjustly imprisoned U.S. citizens and permanent legal residents held hostage.
All options must be on the table to confront Iran and ensure that it never acquires nuclear weapons.
I look forward to working with my Congressional colleagues, with the Trump administration, and with America’s allies in crafting and implementing a comprehensive strategy to make good on that promise.
