Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., says that President Obama is presenting the country with a false choice when he says that Congress should either accept the deal brokered with Iran to curb its nuclear program or brace for war.
During the more than two years of talks leading up to last month’s final deal, Obama consistently said that no deal was better than a bad one and threatened to walk away from the negotiating table, Corker charged in the GOP weekly’s radio address Saturday. So “clearly, there was always another option for the White House,” he said.
Ahead of voting on a resolution to disapprove the deal when Congress returns in September, lawmakers face a real decision: not of either the deal or war, but rather, is the deal “in our national interest?” Corker said.
“Do we believe” that preventing Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon “will make us safer?” he asked.
The vote “should not be taken lightly,” said Corker, adding that it could be one of the most monumental decisions members of the 114th Congress ever take.
“We owe America a thorough and thoughtful debate,” Corker said.
Corker also accused the Obama administration of trying to circumvent the legislative branch by securing a United Nations Security Council resolution on the matter first, “then hoping to pressure Congress to accept it.”
Iran’s leadership is the chief “sponsor of terrorism around the world” and “applauds those who chant ‘death to America,'” Corker said. He explained that legislators must think long and hard about what motivates Iran’s government, and what unfreezing roughly $100 billion in sanctioned Iranian funds globally will mean.
If Iran complies with the agreement, most economic sanctions “that ultimately brought Iran to the negotiating table” will be lifted in nine months, opening up Iran’s isolated economy, he said.
“Iran will go from a weakened state to an economically robust country without being forced to change any of its roughish, destructive behavior,” Corker said.
The finalized agreement, which includes two “side, secret deals” deserves “close scrutiny from Congress,” Corker said.
