Democrats slam ‘massive failure’ of Trump policy after Iran restarts nuclear activity
Democrats are blaming the Donald Trump's "maximum pressure" campaign for Tehran’s decision to resume some enrichment activity constrained by the 2015 nuclear deal.
Tehran’s announcement today that it will walk back some of its commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal prompted swift backlash on Capitol Hill, most of it from Democrats bashing the Donald Trump administration for potentially provoking a nuclear crisis.
Democrats piled on the president for withdrawing from the pact, arguing that it paved the way for Iran’s decision to begin stockpiling uranium and heavy water and resume enriching uranium in 60 days barring financial relief from the Europeans and other parties to the deal. Republicans, meanwhile, were split between declaring victory or dismissing Iran's threatened rollback of its nuclear commitments as a “bluff.”
“This is disastrous news and a massive failure by the Trump administration,” Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., the top Democrat on the Senate’s Middle East panel, said in a statement. “Iran’s moves to restart their nuclear program are a direct consequence of the Trump administration withdrawing from the Iran deal and Trump’s blind, meandering, escalatory Iranian policy.”
Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., who sits on the Foreign Relations and Armed Services panels, echoed Murphy’s assessment.
