Top Republicans in Congress criticized the administration’s strategy in Iran on Monday, saying recent actions prove President Obama made a mistake in securing a nuclear deal with a country that cannot be trusted.
Over the weekend, Iran tested a long-range ballistic missile, prompting some to wonder if it had already broken the newly-signed nuclear deal. Iran also announced the conviction of American reporter Jason Rezaian, who has been held in an Iranian jail for more than a year.
Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., said these moves demonstrate that the Obama administration has failed in its negotiations with Iran.
“[T]he administration has shown a dangerous naivety regarding who it is dealing with,” Royce, the chairman of the House Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement. “The administration didn’t get Jason released when it had the leverage of the nuclear agreement. It must redouble efforts to get Jason and the other imprisoned Americans home now.”
Rezaian, an Iranian-American reporter for the Washington Post, has been held in an Iranian prison for 447 days, according to a Post report. Iranian officials announced over the weekend that he was convicted in a trial not open to any outside witnesses, though it’s still unclear on which charges he was convicted.
Rezaian faced four charges, the most serious of which is espionage. He faces a maximum sentence of 20 years, the Post reported.
Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said Iran’s opaque handling of Rezaian’s trial proves that the country should not be trusted to inspect itself, as required by the nuclear deal negotiated in July.
“President Obama’s gamble that a nuclear deal would lead to a more responsible Iran has already failed,” he said in a statement.
Iran tested its newest long-range ballistic missile over the weekend, dubbed “Emad,” or Pillar. The move prompted many to speculate whether the launch violated the nuclear deal, but Iran claimed that it did not, saying the country has always retained a right to advance its own national security.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said these two issues show that while the administration claimed the nuclear agreement would improve and strengthen relations with Iran, the opposite seems to be happening.
“Iran’s increasing malign behavior in the past few weeks is the dangerous, yet predictable consequence of the administration’s long habit of ignoring and downplaying the broader threat that Iran poses,” said McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. “The president needs to give up on his failed policy of acquiescing to Iranian power and start doing significantly more to counter it.”
