President Trump needs to keep his campaign promise on the Iran nuclear deal
Tea Party Patriots has been working since 2015 to fight this egregious deal that benefits Iran more than it benefits the United States. Earlier this week, Tea Party Patriots Co-founder Jenny Beth Martin sent a letter to the president urging him to decertify the deal and use the bully pulpit to demand Congress re-impose sanctions.
“You were right, Mr. President,” Martin wrote in the letter. “It was a terrible deal then. And it is still a terrible deal today.”
The Obama-era deal laid out “strict” guidelines for Iran to follow for operating its nuclear facilities while lifting the sanctions imposed on the nation. One of the underlining issues is Iran is one of three countries that sponsor terrorism and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) cannot fully verify that Iran is even compliant to the terms in the deal. Iran continues to develop ballistic missile technology, continues to threaten U.S. allies like Israel, and continues to threaten the security of our own nation.
The Hill has Martin’s commentary:
Certifying that continuing the agreement is “vital to the national security interests of the United States” would make a mockery of the phrase “national security interests.”
Instead, the president should decertify, and then demand that the Congress impose sanctions on Iran and any nation that continues to do business with Iran.
Supporters of the deal now cleverly point to one of the agreement’s many flaws — to wit, the fact that most of the benefits to Iran were front-loaded — to insist that withdrawing from the agreement and reimposing sanctions would only hurt us, and not Iran.
That’s wrong. While Iran has clearly benefited from sanctions relief, its economy is still vulnerable to international pressure. The history of financial sanctions against the Iranian regime is clear: Iran’s supporters moan and groan and say sanctions won’t work, then immediately comply once the U.S. imposes sanctions.
Why? Because they would rather stop doing business with Iran and its relatively puny $400 billion economy than lose access to the U.S. and its $19 trillion economy, by far the largest market in the world.
President Trump said he would make an announcement by the end of the week. We know President Trump has America’s best interests at heart and is absolutely committed to keeping his promises. It’s time to dismantle this deal and slap sanctions on Iran and any nation that tries to do business with Iran in defiance of sanctions.