Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., is blasting President Joe Biden over reported plans by the White House to ease sanctions against Iran.
“Iran has shown time and time again that it cannot be trusted, yet President Biden is insistent on getting the United States back into the disastrous Obama-Biden Iran nuclear deal that does nothing but reward the Ayatollah and his regime,” Scott said.
“This is just a repeat of his failed decisions as vice president. President (Donald) Trump was right to cancel this horrible deal and the sanctions his administration levied on Iran are working. Easing sanctions on a government that wants to destroy Israel and chants ‘Death to America’ is unthinkable.
“Biden needs to stop with this weak and misguided strategy and keep maximum pressure on the Ayatollah until Iran is no longer a threat to U.S. national security.”
And, in a Wednesday tweet, he added: “Reports that the Biden Administration is considering easing sanctions on Iran are alarming. Iran has shown it cannot be trusted and the U.S. should not return to the failed Obama-Biden Iran nuclear deal.”
The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that the administration is open to easing sanctions against critical elements of Iran’s economy as Biden looks to return to the 2015 nuclear deal after Trump withdrew from it in 2018.
Politico reported last month that Biden administration officials have proposed a plan “to jump-start the talks” by offering to remove some sanctions on the country in exchange for Iran ending some of its nuclear projects
House Foreign Affairs Committee member Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., has called the report “troubling and bewildering.” He said that “this decision would threaten American and Israeli national security, undermine our alliance with Israel, and reward the largest state sponsor of terrorism with billions of dollars for them to reinvest in military weaponry and proxies to kill American service-members and our allies abroad.”
A group of Republicans unveiled a bill on Wednesday supporting the sanctions on Iran.
“In the first 100 days, President Biden has exhibited a troubling pattern,” Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., who chairs the Republican Study Committee Caucus, said at a press conference introducing the Maximum Pressure Act.
“He’s talked a big game while returning to the same Obama-era weakness that emboldened our adversaries and made American families less safe. His foreign policy seems to be defined by the approach of ‘speak loudly and carry a twig…’
“That’s why we’re here today, to communicate to the Biden administration that we will fight to maintain sanctions on Iran and show our adversaries that if Joe Biden temporarily lifts sanctions, we will reimpose them later,” Banks said.
“We’re seeing Biden’s weak approach take route with regards to Iran,” he added later.
