After news of the Iranian nuclear deal was announced, members of Alaska’s Congressional delegation released announcements with their opinions. Each item is taken from an email sent by that delegate:
Sen. Lisa Murkowski: “If today’s agreement is ‘historic’ as some are claiming, it’s still very much unknown if the history being made is positive or negative. The Iranian government has not historically been a good global citizen, and signing this agreement does not reverse history and make them one. Today, they hold three Americans in prison without cause. In violation of international law, the Iranian government has been engaged in a course of nuclear extortion. And though they oppose ISIL, Iran also serves as a destabilizing force across the Middle East and a threat to Israel’s existence.
“The President signed the bipartisan law I co-sponsored giving Congress a two month window to examine the agreement. Over the next 60 days Congress will have a chance to fully examine whether this agreement is responsible and protects the American people.
“At this juncture, I am skeptical.”
Sen. Dan Sullivan: “The principal objective of entering into negotiations with Iran from the beginning was to keep that country — the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism — from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
“However, we have moved from the clear objective of dismantling Iran’s nuclear weapons capability to managing the proliferation of nuclear weapons in the Middle East. President Ronald Reagan famously said that in the realm of high stakes nuclear agreements, the United States must ‘trust but verify.’ We have neither in this agreement. Iran’s leaders are not trustworthy and the agreement appears to lack the unfettered inspections needed to verify compliance.”
Rep. Don Young: “For months we’ve heard that a deal with Iran, the largest state sponsor of terrorism and repeat offender of human rights violations, must establish concrete and enforceable measures to dismantle its nuclear weapons ambitions, infrastructure and capabilities.
“Unsurprisingly, reports and information show that these negotiations have fallen far short of what Congress and the American people demanded.”
