Area Congress members react to decision,
Members of Congress representing Central Texas reacted Tuesday to President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal.
Here’s what they said:
“President Trump is right to abandon the Obama Administration’s bad deal. We know Iran has long thumbed its nose at the international community and has potentially violated this one-sided agreement. Any new agreement must prevent Iran from obtaining and employing weapons of mass destruction and be subject to congressional scrutiny.”
— U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas
“President Trump boldly told the world that the United States will not be bound by an agreement that advances the interests of an enemy committed to the destruction of our nation and our allies.”
— U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas
“I have no illusions about the Iranian government, but both our military experts and international inspectors verify that Iran is in full compliance. The alternative to this successful diplomacy has always been war.”
— U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin
“The JCPOA is a flawed agreement that did nothing to address the destabilizing actions of the Iranian regime. This agreement emboldened Iran, filling its coffers with billions in cash to advance its ballistic missile program, expand its support for terrorism, and stretch its tentacles across the region. The President’s decision today to withdraw from the nuclear agreement is based on these facts.”
— U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin
“I support President Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Iran deal. This flawed agreement provided hundreds of billions of dollars to Iran, the world’s leading state-sponsor of terrorism. It allowed Iran to acquire intercontinental ballistic missiles, the sole purpose of which is to deliver nuclear weapons. And the Iran Deal did not allow for the inspection of Iranian sites suspected of developing nuclear weapons.”
— U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith, R-San Antonio
“Since its inception, the Iran Nuclear Deal has failed to rein in the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism and all but guaranteed that Iran will develop a nuclear weapon. I opposed this agreement from the beginning and I applaud President Donald J. Trump’s decisive action to reverse the damage done under the Obama administration.”
— U.S. Rep. Roger Williams, R-Austin
“I’ve always opposed the Iran nuclear agreement, because it paved the way for a terrorist-supporting regime to develop nuclear weapons, further destabilizing the Middle East. It was a bad deal from the beginning, and the administration’s decision to withdraw is in the best interest of America’s national security goals.”
— U.S. Rep. John Carter, R-Round Rock
“Today, President Trump took decisive measures to deal with Iran’s rogue regime. I applaud his decision to reimpose sanctions on Iran and to withdraw from the previous administration’s deeply flawed and dangerous Iran nuclear agreement.”
— U.S. Rep. Bill Flores, R-Bryan