No Return to Flawed Iran Deal, Inhofe Reiterates

Statement

U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC), today released the following statement on news that U.S. officials will meet next week with senior officials from participant countries to revive the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action:

"Despite personal assurances from the Biden administration that they would pursue a different diplomatic approach with Iran, it appears that the administration is instead working to return to the deeply flawed 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. That means giving the Iranian government substantial sanctions relief in exchange for nuclear enrichment limits that expire in four years. It also means that Iran will once again use its sanctions relief to fund terrorist groups, including those that continue to target American personnel for murder. This is not just misguided -- it's dangerous.

"The only sustainable diplomatic resolution with Iran is one that has bipartisan support -- which means working with Congress to create an agreement that definitively ends Iran's support for terrorism, curtails its ballistic missile program, is supported by our allies and partners in the region and permanently prevents it from acquiring a nuclear weapons capability.

"As a reminder: members of Congress rejected the JCPOA on a bipartisan basis in 2015. If you repeat history next week by restoring that failed agreement, we will work to reject it once again."

In February, Inhofe wrote an op-ed in Foreign Policy calling the return to the flawed JCPOA a "mistake" and outlining four principles to which any new agreement with Iran must adhere.

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