Top Senate Republican rips into Trump's Iran deal, says $300 billion makes Obama deal look like 'a pittance'
Republicans aren’t taking President Donald Trump's deal with Iran well.
While Congress has still not received the actual memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed by Trump and Iranian officials, lawmakers have seen the reports circulating in the media.
And one of the top Republicans in the Senate warned that while he supported the war’s initial objectives, he feared that the current agreement would undermine those same objectives.
Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Roger Wicker, R-Miss., shredded the MOU in a statement on Thursday, in which he cautioned that the agreement "negotiates away the victories of Operation Epic Fury in ways that are completely out of step with the president's goals."
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"Specifically, the $300 billion fund for the reconstruction and economic development of Iran — though not funded by U.S. taxpayers — would make Iran's payoff under President Obama's 2015 deal look like a pittance by comparison," Wicker said.
The proposed $300 billion fund has given Republicans heartburn as details have emerged in recent days, with some comparing it to the billions that flowed to Iran under former President Joe Biden.
The agreement stipulates that the U.S. would coordinate with regional partners to develop the fund, which would be finalized as part of the 60-day deal.
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Wicker also took issue with lifting sanctions on Iran and forcing Israel to stand down against Hezbollah, "an Iranian-backed terrorist organization that continues to attack Israel on its northern border."
"The Iranian regime has not renounced its ultimate goal — ‘Death to America, Death to Israel,’" Wicker said. "The regime will invest every penny it receives to further that aim."
"President Trump has pursued peace through strength," he continued. "I hope the intermediaries working on this deal are not undermining that objective."
Wicker isn’t alone in his fear that Iran will turn around and use the funds for nefarious efforts.
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Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, warned that "giving billions of dollars to theocratic lunatics who want to murder us is an exceptionally bad idea."
"And I think, unfortunately, the president is receiving some really bad advice on this deal," Cruz told reporters.
Cruz compared the fund to billions shipped to Iran under the Biden administration, which he charged was the "most catastrophic foreign policy" decision made during the prior administration, and that the "money funded terrorism across the globe in a very real sense."
"If we give billions of dollars to Iran, that money will be used to murder Americans," he said. "And so I don't believe we should do that. And the idea that we would have effectively a Marshall plan for Iran and come in and rebuild Iran after they've been the leading state sponsor of terrorism for 47 years — they've murdered nearly a thousand Americans — I don't think that makes any sense."
Vice President JD Vance, who has become the public face of the deal, defended the fund during a press briefing at the White House on Thursday, contending that the only way Iran could access that funding, which he vowed was not coming from taxpayers, was "if they comply fully and change their behavior."
"So you really have a win-win situation for the United States of America," Vance said.
