Billy Long: Trump made the right move by pulling out of Iran deal

(From Seventh District Congressman Billy Long)

On October 18, 2015, the U.S., along with the United Kingdom, China, Russia, France and Germany, formally adopted the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, also known as the Iran Deal. This one-sided deal was intended to curb Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for lifting international sanctions on Iran equal to billions of dollars. What did the U.S. get out of this? Nothing. Iran, on the other hand, got a much better deal.

Iran went from having a weak economy and poor positioning in the Middle East to growing its GDP by 12.5 percent the first year after the deal was agreed to according to the International Monetary Fund. Iran, which has been known for sponsoring terrorism, now had a rapidly growing economy and the funds to more fully support terrorist activities.

While the deal was intended to halt Iran’s nuclear program, it did very little to achieve that goal. Under the Iran Deal, international inspectors were given scheduled access to nuclear facilities and had to request access for undeclared facilities, which included military sites. For inspectors to secure access to these facilities, it would sometimes take up to 24 hours, leaving Iran plenty of time to manipulate the facility to comply with the agreement.

Understanding the threats the Iran Deal would pose to our allies across the globe, bipartisan majorities in both the House of Representatives and Senate voted against this horrible deal. Instead of going back to the table to negotiate a better deal, President Obama agreed to it anyway.

The State Department describes Iran as the “foremost state sponsor of terrorism.” A perfect example of this is Iran’s support of Hezbollah, which is a terrorist organization based in Lebanon. For decades, Hezbollah has had the singular goal of fighting Israel, dating back to the 1980s. With the help of Iran, Hezbollah, which is essentially an arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, has expanded its presence to Syria and Iraq.

But this isn’t the first time Iran has used a terrorist organization to do its dirty work. The Houthis, which is a terrorist organization based in Yemen, is another organization Iran supports to spread its influence. As the U.S. continues to work with its allies in the Middle East to deescalate the situation in Yemen, which is arguably one of the worst humanitarian crises we have ever seen, Iran has used the Houthis to destabilize the region even further and attack other nations.

Iran has proven time and time again that it has no interest in working with the U.S. and its allies. Staying in the Iran Deal only props up the regime and gives it significant financial resources to use against U.S. interests.

President Trump ran on the promise of getting the U.S. out of this horrible deal. And on May 8, 2018, President Trump followed through on this promise and announced the U.S. would leave the Iran Deal. This sent a message to Iran and to the international community that we will no longer tolerate Iran’s reckless behavior and its violations of human rights.