Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin announced Friday he will oppose the deal, viewed as a setback to the White House drive to secure enough support to implement the Iran nuclear deal, CNN reported on September 4th.
Cardin, who is Jewish and is the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, is the third Senate Democrat to oppose the deal.
“Throughout the process of evaluating the Iran nuclear agreement, I continuously returned to two fundamental questions: Is this deal more or less likely to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear weapons state? Would rejection increase or decrease the likelihood of the nightmare scenario of a nuclear-armed Iran?” Cardin wrote in an opinion piece for the Washington Post. “Despite the rhetoric coming from all sides, this is not a clear choice. Nobody possesses clairvoyance.”
Among other things, Cardin said he is concerned about the nuclear inspections process and that Iran would be able to get ballistic missiles.
“I remain troubled that we agreed to a challenge period of up to 24 days for International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspections should Iran deny access to an undeclared, suspicious site. And I cannot support lifting the U.N. arms embargo and ballistic missile sanctions,” he said.