Sen. Lindsey Graham on Sunday praised President Trump’s decision to decertify the Iran nuclear deal, an agreement that he decried as “terrible” and a “miserable failure.”
“The president ran on the idea this is a bad deal for America, and he won,” Graham, R-S.C. said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
“He’s fulfilling a campaign promise. This is a terrible deal. To those who said this deal would make Iran a better member of the family of nations, it was a miserable failure. He promised to tear it up, and decided not to tear it up, but decertify, which I think he’s right to do, and push the world and Congress to a get better deal before it’s too late. ”
Trump on Friday threatened to leave the nuclear deal if Congress doesn’t amend some of its provisions to permanently block Iran from building nuclear weapons or intercontinental missiles.
Some of the deal’s provisions expire in 10 or 15 years. Trump, in decertifying the deal, pushed to Congress a decision about whether to reimpose sanctions on Iran that would effectively kill the agreement. Graham is a leading critic of the nuclear deal negotiated by the Obama administration, European allies, China and Russia, which limits Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.
Graham, who golfed with Trump on Saturday, said he would work with the White House to renegotiate the deal, and challenged Democrats to support that effort.
“I’d hate to be a Democrat defending the sunset clause,” Graham said of the deal’s terms that expire early. “Under this agreement, after 15 years, the Iranians can do anything they want in terms of enrichment and reprocessing. It doesn’t matter if they are still the largest state sponsor of terrorism or building [intercontinental ballistic missiles]. Under mere passage of time, they can do whatever they want to with enrichment.”
The South Carolina Republican said he supports a proposal by Sens. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and Tom Cotton, R-Ark., that would impose an automatic return of sanctions if Iran was believed to be capable of producing a nuclear weapon within a year, or if it violated other terms of the deal.
“I like what Corker and Cotton are doing,” Graham said. “They are saying, we’re going to put triggers in. Congress is going to say to the Iranians, if you ever try to get within a year of break out time, we’re going to reimpose sanctions. We’re going to look at your missile program anew. We will make sure we can inspect any place. If you don’t allow us to inspect, we’ll impose sanctions. If you’re still sponsoring terrorism down the road, we’ll reimpose sanctions. I like that as triggers.”
