Sen. Lindsey Graham (S.C.) and other GOP senators are blasting the nuclear deal negotiated by the Obama administration with Iran, arguing it will not prevent Tehran from obtaining weapons and increases the chances of war.
“My initial impression is that this deal is far worse than I ever dreamed it could be and will be a nightmare for the region, our national security and eventually the world at large,” he told Bloomberg News.
“If you care about the United States, you will not allow our chief antagonist to become a nuclear threshold nation guaranteed in nature with no restrictions for them to go beyond that,” he said.
Sen. Tom Cotton (Ark.), a freshman Republican, said on the same program that Congress would pass a resolution of disapproval killing the deal, which two-thirds needs support in both chambers.
He called it “a terrible, dangerous mistake.”
Earlier this year, Cotton spearheaded a letter to Iran’s leadership signed by most Senate Republicans warning that Congress could block any deal negotiated with the United States and five other powers.
John Bolton, former President George W. Bush’s ambassador to the United Nations, blasted it as “an absolute disaster” in a tweet.
“The only thing we need to ‘verify’ about #IranDeal is what Obama was thinking when he agreed to it.”
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, another Republican presidential candidate, pledged he would reserve the option to use military power to topple Iran’s government if elected to the White House.
“Shame on the Obama administration for agreeing to a deal that empowers an evil Iranian regime to carry out its threat to ‘wipe Israel off the map’ and bring ‘death to America,’ ” Huckabee said in a statement.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (Tenn.), who will lead the Republican legislative response to the deal, did not condemn it as harshly as some of his colleagues but raised strong concerns.
“I want to read the agreement in detail and fully understand it, but I begin from a place of deep skepticism that the deal actually meets the goal of preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon,” he said.
He warned that lifting sanctions would pour tens of billions of dollars into Iran’s treasury, potentially accelerating the development of the country’s nuclear program down the road and giving it a greater ability to support terrorist groups.
“In the coming days, Congress will need to scrutinize this deal and answer whether implementing the agreement is worth dismantling our painstakingly constructed sanctions regime that took more than a decade to establish,” he said.  
 
The Hill, 14 July 2015