Menendez: I Won’t Support Iran Deal ‘Based On Hope’

Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) argued that the Iran deal is “based on hope,” and that even though it would be easier to support, he wouldn’t take the easy path in a speech on Tuesday.

Menendez said, “Whether or not the supporters of the agreement admit it, this deal is based on hope.  Hope that when the nuclear sunset clause expires, Iran will have succumbed to the benefits of commerce and global integration. Hope that the hardliners will have lost their power and the revolution will end its hegemonic goals. Hope that the regime will allow the Iranian people to decide their fate. And hope is part of human nature, but unfortunately it is not a national security strategy. The Iranian regime, led by the Ayatollah, wants, above all, to preserve the regime and its Revolution, unlike the Green Revolution of 2009. So it stretches incredulity to believe they signed on to a deal that would in any way weaken the regime, or threaten the goals of the Revolution. Now, I understand that this deal represents a trade-off, a hope that things may be different in Iran in ten to fifteen years. Maybe Iran will desist from its nuclear ambitions. Maybe they’ll stop exporting and supporting terrorism. Maybe they’ll stop holding innocent Americans hostage. Maybe they’ll stop burning American flags. And maybe their leadership will stop chanting, ‘Death to America’ in the streets of Tehran. Or maybe they won’t. I know that, in many respects, it would be far easier to support this deal, as it would have been to vote for the war in Iraq at the time. But I didn’t choose the easier path then, and I am not going to now.”

(h/t Real Clear Politics)

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