Friday on MSNBC’s “NewsNation,” Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY) said President Barack Obama’s Iranian nuclear program deal is a “mixed bag of tricks” that Congress has to decide if the United States is “better off with it or without it.
Engel said, “First of all, I think Congress has to play a role. This is very, very important. I think that Congress has to decide.”
“I don’t think this is a sellout,” he said. “This is a mixed bag of tricks. I think it is all going to be sorted out. There are things I like and things I don’t like about it. I like that Iran has to destroy two-thirds of centrifuges, I like the fact that it is certain inspections last 25 years.”
“I don’t like the fact that Iran has the right to enrich on its territory,” Engel continued. “Seems to me preliminarily it is a mixed bag of tricks. We have to sort it through. I have said on the outset no deal is better than a bad deal. We have to assume or figure out if this is more of a good deal or more of a bad deal. It is certainly a mixed bag of tricks and we’re going to have to assess it in the next few months while the bill and details are being hammered out.”
“Ronald Reagan would say trust but verify, I would say don’t trust and verify,” he added. “Iran continues to be a bad actor in the region. One of the thing that disturbs me, we are talking about Iran’s nuclear program, not talking about the instability Iran caused in the region being the main supporter of terrorism in the world, being supporter of Hamas, Hezbollah, helping overthrow the government in Yemen, propping up Assad in Syria, it is very disturbing. Again, there are some good things and I think we have to weigh it. Better off with it or without it?”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.