Cassidy Calls Trump’s Iran Deal the ‘Worst Foreign Policy Blunder in Decades’

A Republican lawmaker, Senator Bill Cassidy, is not hiding his feelings about President Trump’s new memorandum of understanding between the United States and Iran. Dr. Cassidy calls it “the worst foreign policy blunder in decades.”Mr. Trump’s agreement with the Iranians, which was signed last weekend, will give the Islamic Republic 60 days to negotiate a resolution to the nuclear weapons issue, though Mr. Trump himself said that the two-month mark is not a hard deadline for him. Speaking to reporters after landing in Paris on Wednesday, Mr. Trump said Iranians will not face punishment so long as they are behaving. Many of Mr. Trump’s supporters have lambasted the deal as a complete surrender, accomplishing none of the goals he set out to achieve at the start of the war. Now, Dr. Cassidy is the first Republican lawmaker on Capitol Hill to fully denounce Mr. Trump’s agreement. “Reagan is rolling over in his grave. Iran’s nuclear ambitions were not curbed, and they have learned that threatening the Strait of Hormuz works and will undoubtedly leverage it in the future. Now, Iran gets to build brand-new infrastructure under this deal,” Dr. Cassidy wrote in a post on X. “Before the war, the strait was open, Iran was being crushed by sanctions, and 13 service members were still alive,” the Louisiana senator added. “Now, 13 Americans are dead, families have paid billions at the pump, sanctions will be lifted, and the bombing has stopped.”“This is the worst foreign policy blunder in decades,” Dr. Cassidy wrote. After keeping the memorandum of understanding out of the public eye for days — even after it was signed by American and Iranian officials — members of the Trump administration briefed members of the press during a background call on Wednesday. According to the Associated Press, the fears of some of America’s biggest Iran hawks have now become a reality. According to the AP, all hostilities between the United States, Iran, Israel, and Lebanon will cease immediately. On top of that, the U.S. will begin the process of easing “all types” of sanctions currently imposed on Iran, and American officials will begin working on a $300 billion reparations fund for Iran in order to help the country rebuild after the war. In turn, Iran will neither develop nor seek to acquire a nuclear weapon. Once the deal is finalized, it will be ratified by a UN resolution. After days of details being leaked from the Trump administration and other sources in Europe and the Middle East, many hardliners here in America who want to see greater action taken against Iran did not hold back in their criticism. Mr. Trump himself set off the firestorm when he confirmed the details of the MOU during a press conference at the conclusion of the G7 summit on Wednesday. He went so far as to say that he would be fine with Iran pursuing conventional military capabilities, considering foes like Saudi Arabia have similar weapons. “If other countries have them, it’s a little bit unfair for [Iran] not to have some,” Mr. Trump said of ballistic missile capabilities.Another Iran hawk, Senator Ted Cruz, said in an episode of his podcast “Verdict” that he believes it would be a mistake to give the Iranian government any money to rebuild after the war. “What I’m saying to [Mr. Trump] is: ‘Don’t give away the victory,” Mr. Cruz said Wednesday. “We have defeated their military. Don’t suddenly come in with massive buckets of cash to let them rebuild and become a threat to America again.”Others were less charitable. “This MOU appears to be — just from the text — a disaster that does not achieve any of the actual … goals that were set by the administration at the beginning,” conservative commentator Ben Shapiro said on Fox News on Wednesday. “The Vice President of the United States — the chief negotiator on this particular project — has not well served the president.”Another Iran hardliner, Senator Lindsey Graham, was more open to the president’s deal with the Iranians. In a statement posted to X, Mr. Graham said the initial MOU will likely be “beneficial … in as much as the Strait of Hormuz will begin to open, and the hostilities with Iran will stop.”

Cassidy Calls Trump’s Iran Deal the ‘Worst Foreign Policy Blunder in Decades’

Cassidy Calls Trump’s Iran Deal the ‘Worst Foreign Policy Blunder in Decades’

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