Former Independent Sen. Joe Lieberman told Newsmax he is urging the president “not to recertify” the Obama administration’s controversial deal with Iran.“Every 90 days that the agreement stays on the book is not in the national security interests,” said Lieberman, who caucused with the Democrats and was the 2000 Democratic vice presidential nominee. He now heads a bipartisan group known as “United Against a Nuclear Iraq.”
President Trump has stated he has not made up his mind on whether to recertify the nuclear agreement, and the Iranian regime says they expect him to break it off.
Lieberman for his part, said of the deal made in January 2016: “The Iranian government was in trouble and, in the negotiations, they were playing with a very weak hand,” Lieberman told me, “So we gave away a lot for not much.”
Among the benefits that Iran received: lifting of U.S. sanctions that have been in place since the present Tehran regime came to power in 1979, and unfreezing an estimated $1.6 billion in Iranian assets that were held in U.S. banks.
Even without solid evidence Iran is violating the agreement and enriching more nuclear facilities than permitted, Lieberman strongly feels there is ample evidence to decertify the agreement and not to do business with Tehran.
“You have a regime that is a police state, and supports repression of its own people,” he said, “and it is already a supporter of the Hamas wing in Gaza, which wants to kill us and our allies. And Iran still supports the Taliban in Afghanistan.”
I asked Lieberman about President Trump’s remarks concerning the Iran government at a private gathering of reporters at the White House earlier this year. At the time, the president remarked that the $1.6 billion that was unfrozen “is going to Swiss bank accounts that benefit the Ayatollah and his friends.”
Lieberman said: “I wouldn’t be surprised. The imams don’t take any vows of poverty."
As for Iran's controversial enrighment program, under what is known officially as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Iran will be limited to installing no more than 5,060 of its nearly 20,000 centrifuges (enrichment facilities to produce fuel for nuclear power plants) in the next 10 years.
The centrifuges that will be installed will be among the oldest and least efficient in Iran.
President Obama often reminded reporters that if the U.S. ever “snapped backed” and re-imposed sanctions on Iran, Germany, France and other countries that were now dealing with Baghdad would not follow suit and the revived U.S. sanctions would not pack the wallop they formerly did.
“True, but remember — all foreign businesses want to do business with the U.S.,” Lieberman told me, “and it might be wise to limit the ability of foreign countries to do business in this country when they business with Iran.”
Among those on the board of Against a Nuclear Iran, are Bill Clinton’s CIA Director James Woolsey, Florida’s former Republican Gov. Jeb Bush, and former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton.
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
President Trump has stated he has not made up his mind on whether to recertify the nuclear agreement, and the Iranian regime says they expect him to break it off.
Lieberman for his part, said of the deal made in January 2016: “The Iranian government was in trouble and, in the negotiations, they were playing with a very weak hand,” Lieberman told me, “So we gave away a lot for not much.”
Among the benefits that Iran received: lifting of U.S. sanctions that have been in place since the present Tehran regime came to power in 1979, and unfreezing an estimated $1.6 billion in Iranian assets that were held in U.S. banks.
Even without solid evidence Iran is violating the agreement and enriching more nuclear facilities than permitted, Lieberman strongly feels there is ample evidence to decertify the agreement and not to do business with Tehran.
“You have a regime that is a police state, and supports repression of its own people,” he said, “and it is already a supporter of the Hamas wing in Gaza, which wants to kill us and our allies. And Iran still supports the Taliban in Afghanistan.”
I asked Lieberman about President Trump’s remarks concerning the Iran government at a private gathering of reporters at the White House earlier this year. At the time, the president remarked that the $1.6 billion that was unfrozen “is going to Swiss bank accounts that benefit the Ayatollah and his friends.”
Lieberman said: “I wouldn’t be surprised. The imams don’t take any vows of poverty."
As for Iran's controversial enrighment program, under what is known officially as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Iran will be limited to installing no more than 5,060 of its nearly 20,000 centrifuges (enrichment facilities to produce fuel for nuclear power plants) in the next 10 years.
The centrifuges that will be installed will be among the oldest and least efficient in Iran.
President Obama often reminded reporters that if the U.S. ever “snapped backed” and re-imposed sanctions on Iran, Germany, France and other countries that were now dealing with Baghdad would not follow suit and the revived U.S. sanctions would not pack the wallop they formerly did.
“True, but remember — all foreign businesses want to do business with the U.S.,” Lieberman told me, “and it might be wise to limit the ability of foreign countries to do business in this country when they business with Iran.”
Among those on the board of Against a Nuclear Iran, are Bill Clinton’s CIA Director James Woolsey, Florida’s former Republican Gov. Jeb Bush, and former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton.
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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