Lawmakers Push Biden Not To Reenter Iran Nuclear Deal

On Wednesday, 110 House Republican lawmakers signed a letter urging President Joe Biden (D) to abandon negotiations with Iran as the Biden administration tries to get Iran to reenter the 2015 Iran nuclear deal – also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

“We write to urge you to immediately withdraw from the fruitless Vienna talks to re-enter the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and instead strongly enforce existing sanctions against Iran, particularly with respect to the oil trade between Iran and the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Further delay of action on this only further enables Iran’s malign activities, including their aggressive nuclear pursuits,” the lawmakers, led by House Foreign Affairs Committee Lead Republican Michael McCaul, wrote.

“The letter is a sign that Republicans are united against reentering the 2015 accord,” The Free Beacon reported. “It also comes as negotiations with Tehran drag into a second year, with the Iranian regime demanding further concessions from the Biden administration, including the full reversal of sanctions on the country’s nuclear program and regional terrorism enterprise.”

“As diplomatic talks resume after months of delays, Iran has greatly expanded its nuclear program, including its enrichment of uranium, a main component in an atomic weapon,” the outlet added. “Iran is now enriching and stockpiling highly enriched uranium, which can only [be] used for a bomb. This work has continued in the face of ongoing sanctions and opposition from the international community. Senior Biden administration officials have acknowledged in recent weeks that Iran is stalling negotiations while it advances its nuclear program.”

The 2015 Iran nuclear deal was widely criticized as Iran used the funds acquired from the deal, which was estimated to be between $100 to $150 billion, to fund terrorist organizations in the Middle East. Iran also reportedly violated the deal after it was passed.

In 2019, Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, revealed that JCPOA negotiations had mandated that Iran destroy parts of their nuclear reactors by filling them with cement. However, Iran secretly acquired replacement parts so that the functionality of those reactors would not be ultimately affected. Salehi also said that pictures of reactors filled with cement had been photoshopped.

“A nuclear agreement with Iran is again on the table, but history has taught us that agreements like this with extremist regimes are worth as much as garlic peel,” former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned earlier this year. “To our best friends I say – an agreement with Iran which paves its way to nuclear weapons that threaten us with destruction – an agreement like this will not bind us.”