Ranking member of the Foreign Relations Committee Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) said in a written statement, “While I strongly opposed the JCPOA, it is a grave mistake to walk away from this deal without a plan for ensuring that Iran does not restart its nuclear weapon program, without a strategy for countering Iran’s dangerous non-nuclear activities, and without our allies and partners.” He added, “The governments of Iran, Russia, and China will seize this opportunity of self-imposed U.S. isolation to continue major weapons sales, deepen economic ties, and further challenge the United States and Europe not only in the Middle East but in other areas like North Korea.” [...]
Second, whether our allies will now cooperate with this on nonnuclear matters including sanctions for Iran’s ballistic missile program and its support for terrorism is an open question. The European Union has every reason to be wary of U.S. promises. In making it harder to deal with issues that were outside of the JCPOA, Trump makes our overall policy to Iran weaker and less coherent.
Third, the administration’s total inability to plan ahead is on full display. Will we exempt allies from newly imposed sanctions? Do we have a military plan if Iran does make a race for the bomb — and if so, will allies join with us after we have backed out of the deal? How will we enforce sanctions? The plethora of questions belie anti-JCPOA hawks’ assurances that the administration had figured out all the post-deal angles. Hardly. The Treasury Department advises, “Sanctions will be reimposed subject to certain 90 day and 180 day wind-down periods. At the conclusion of the wind-down periods, the applicable sanctions will come back into full effect.” It’s unclear if Trump and his negotiators intend to use this time to extract more concessions from our allies. For now, we lack a clear path forward.
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