Almost a year after six world powers and Iran struck a deal to curb Tehran’s nuclear program, a Democratic senator and early critic of the deal is calling it a “success.”
Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, originally was skeptical of the Iran agreement and called it the “least-bad option.” But on Thursday at the Council on Foreign Relations, he seemed to reverse his stance by saying the Iran nuclear deal had made “real and meaningful progress.”
Over the past year, Iran removed essentially all of its enriched uranium, reduced its centrifuges, and permanently re-engineered nuclear equipment to be used for non-military use, Coons said. Because of this, Iran is more than a year away from obtaining a nuclear warhead, as opposed to the two to three month time horizon before the agreement.
Although Coons cited progress, he also warned that Iran remains “untrustworthy” and continues to exploit weak states and power vacuums. “Iran is not a responsible state seeking to rejoin the international community,” he said. “This deal is likely to remain a transactional deal, not transformative.”
In addition, if there were any possibility for the Iran regime to change course, it will be 10 to 20 years before it occurs.
Nevertheless, Coons believes the U.S. should remain engaged diplomatically. He also called on Congress to increase funding for the International Atomic Energy Agency, an agency that’s stretched thin with 24/7 nuclear patrols in Iran.
The U.S. elections play a major factor in the Iran deal for Coons. If the next American president were to alter or end the agreement, according to the senator, it will lead to other gulf states starting a nuclear arms race, something that would be “devastating.”
