The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) President Morton A. Klein and ZOA Director of Government Relations Dan Pollak released the following:
The Zionist Organization of America strongly endorses the letter released on February 16th by Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) and Rep. Michael Waltz (R-FL) and signed by the GOP leadership and 165 House GOP Colleagues to President Joe Biden, opposing the administration’s current negotiations to return to an even weaker version of the Iran deal. The letter makes the point that Congress has a role in any new nuclear agreement with Iran. The letter highlights the flaws of the Obama-era Iran agreement, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, and states that members will:
- Oppose any agreement that lifts U.S. sanctions on the Iranian regime without first verifying Iran has accounted for its nuclear capabilities, dismantled its enrichment capabilities, halted its support for terrorists, and released all U.S. prisoners.
- View any agreement not ratified by the Senate as non-binding.
- Work to reimpose and strengthen any terrorism, missile or human rights sanctions lifted, suspended, or otherwise weakened by such an agreement.
- Investigate whether President Biden’s dependency on the Russians to revive the Iranian nuclear deal is weakening our deterrent posture with the Russians in Ukraine and other areas of the world.
The members pointed out: “The Iranian regime brutally represses, persecutes, tortures, and murders its own people. It wastes the Iranian people’s resources on terrorism, foreign aggression, missiles, and nuclear weapons capabilities. [Normalized relations will never come as long as] you provide sanctions relief that will fuel the regime’s corruption and incompetence at the expense of the Iranian people.”
The letter was signed by a total of 165 House Republicans, including Leader McCarthy, Whip Scalise, and Chairwoman Stefanik.
Click HERE to see the full letter and list of signers.
ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said:
“The agreement the Biden Administration is about to enter into is a surrender to Iran, and incredibly, even worse than the disastrous 2015 capitulation by President Obama. This upcoming agreement may end all restrictions on Iran in less than three years! It will almost certainly result in the eventual need for a military strike on Iran to prevent their acquisition of multiple nuclear weapons, and in even the best-case scenario, the agreement will make it possible for Iran to achieve a nuclear weapon capability in just a few years without the U.S. or the rest of the world interfering. Actual breakout time could be much shorter, though, since the administration is committed to ignoring material breaches of existing agreements. It also will funnel billions of dollars to the Iranian terror machine, and the entire region – including Jews, Arabs, and Turks – will suffer from the resulting terrorism.”
ZOA Director of Government Relations Dan Pollak said:
“Like its predecessor from 2015, this latest agreement with Iran is not following the U.S. Constitution, which requires treaties to be ratified by the United States Senate. In addition, the administration is also planning on ignoring the law passed in 2015, the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act, which requires the President to submit any agreement reached with Iran to Congress within five days and allows both houses of Congress to object to the agreement. The President must be made to observe the Constitution and existing federal law.”
ZOA urges members of both parties to take action in accordance with this important letter to prevent Iranian nuclear supremacy.