While the President’s decision to pull out of the Iran nuclear arms deal could eventually result in higher gasoline prices in Oklahoma and other states, Oklahoma’s two U.S. Senators think the President made the right move.
“President Trump has done the right thing by pulling out of the flawed Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action and reinstating sanctions on Iran,” said Sen. Jim Inhofe. “It was a bad deal from the beginning that only paused Iran’s nuclear development and did nothing to address their malign behavior in the region or their ballistic missile capabilities.”
U.S. Sen. James Lankford had much the same reaction.
“The Iran nuclear agreement, designed and agreed to by President Obama, had major flaws from the beginning,” he said in a statement from his office. “The agreement gave permanent tariff relief to Iran in exchange for temporary restrictions on its nuclear weapons program.”
Lankford, who sits on the U.S. Senate Intelligence committee said Iran has spent years designing nuclear weapons but needed more time to develop new missiles and more money to pay for their technology.
“The nuclear agreement gave Iran billions of dollars and it ignored the continuing missile testing in Iran. That is unacceptable,” said the Senator.
Sen. Inhofe thinks President Trump’s withdrawal and resumption of tougher sanctions is sending a message around the world.
“We’ve seen how a tough approach from President Trump is seeing real results with China and North Korea. I fully expect his action today to be the first step in actually countering the regime in Tehran, rather than appeasing them with a toothless accord.”
Sen. Lankford supports tougher sanctions.
“I support additional sanctions on Iran, as they are the largest state sponsor of terrorism in the world. The Iranian regime is expanding into Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen. The Middle East and the region cannot have peace with a threatening Iranian nuclear regime. I encourage the Trump Administration to immediately begin working with the international community, in close consultation with Congress, to find a solution that will ensure Iran never has access to nuclear weapons capabilities.”