WASHINGTON — The United States’ nuclear agreement with Iran went into effect over the weekend, prompting Alabama Congressman Bradley Byrne (R-AL1), a member of the House Armed Services Committee, to blast the Obama administration for pumping billions of dollars into the Iranian regime that could be used to harm America and her allies around the world.
“I fear we will one day look back on this deal as a stark failure of U.S. foreign policy,” said Byrne. “The deal requires us to trust Iran, and their actions have proven time and time again that they cannot be trusted. This deal gives billions of dollars to the world’s number one state sponsor of terrorism, and it fails to prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapon. Nothing about that is good for the American people or our allies in the Middle East.
“Let’s not forget that a bipartisan majority in the House of Representatives voted last year to halt this bad deals,” he continued. “As the deal moves forward, Congress must continue to provide diligent oversight and do everything in our power to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.”
As part of the deal, crippling economic sanctions previously placed on Iran by the United Nations, European Union and United States have been unwound, and the EU’s embargo on oil imports has ended. The United States will no longer penalize international banks for doing business with Iran, paving the way for the Iranian economy to ramp back up. Additionally, critics of the Iran deal note that as much as $100 million in Iranian oil revenues that were previously frozen in international banks will now be released, providing a massive windfall for the regime.
The deal’s implementation comes just days after the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Navy detained 10 American sailors in the Persian Gulf, images of which were used as propaganda by the Iranian regime as it gears up for elections next month.
In another development over the weekend, the United States released seven prisoners and agreed not to prosecute 14 more in return for the release of four Americans who had been unjustly imprisoned in Iran. Among the prisoners released is Saeed Abedini, an American Christian pastor jailed for his faith three years ago.
Critics of the move compared it to the Obama administration choosing to exchange five Taliban fighters held in Guantanamo Bay for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who wandered off his post in Afghanistan and now faces a court-martial and possible life imprisonment on charges of desertion and endangering fellow soldiers.
“I don’t generally believe in prisoner exchanges,” said Russell Moore, the top public policy spokesperson for the Southern Baptist Convention, told the Washington Post. Moore opposes the Iran deal. “That said, one can oppose of a plan and still rejoice in the release of prisoners of conscience.”
Obama’s Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes hailed the Iran nuclear accord as “a significant rollback of the Iranian program.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that the Iranians could still “clandestinely develop nuclear weapons,” while Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said that “all are happy except Zionists, warmongers, sowers of discord among Islamic nations and extremists in the US.”
