Bipartisan opposition to the Iran nuclear agreement is mounting, as Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton vows to uphold the terms of the deal is she is to be president.
“I will do everything necessary to make sure the lid stays on their nuclear weapons program, and I will begin to form a coalition against Iran on all other things they do which are dangerous,” Clinton said, according to a Washington Post report.
She said that Congress undermining the President’s foreign policy shows America to be weak, especially in the eyes of China and Russia, and that Congress ought to pass the deal so as not to paint the President as being inconsistent.
“They’re going to say, ‘we stuck with the Americans, we agreed with the Americans and we hammered out this agreement,’” Clinton said. “And if their President can’t make foreign policy that is a very bad signal to send in a quickly moving and often dangerous world.”
However, Democratic Presidential hopeful Jim Webb is speaking out against the deal, denouncing it as a “bad deal.”
Former Virginia Senator Webb pointed out that lawmakers must vote in the best interest for America, as opposed to merely voting along party lines. He criticized the partisanship taking hold in Washington, saying that politicians must not vote out of allegiance to the President, according to CNS News.
“I think we need to put country ahead of party,” Webb said on FOX. “It troubles me when I see all this debate about whether this is disloyalty to the President or to the Democratic Party, particularly with what Chuck Schumer has gone through.”
Opponents of the deal say that Iran cannot be trusted to make fissile material, for the purpose of making weapons or otherwise, according to Bloomberg. They argue that the only way to make Iran give up its enrichment facilities is by means of imposing tougher sanctions. Bloomberg also said critics of the accord are not satisfied by IAEA verification, a key component of the JCPOA.
“They point out that Iran only acknowledged its two main uranium enrichment plants after they were exposed by people outside the country,” the Bloomberg report said.
