Washington, D.C.– Congressman Erik Paulsen (MN-03) released the following statement in response to the Administration’s announcement of a nuclear deal with Iran.

“I support a diplomatic solution to find a peaceful end to Iran’s nuclear weapons program. However, over the past decades, Iran has repeatedly cheated and lied to the international community in its illicit pursuit of a nuclear bomb. Because of this deception, this deal should have included rigorous inspections and a verification process that gives the international community unfettered access to potential nuclear sites. It should have also required an end to enrichment capabilities and for Iran to fully disable their nuclear weapons program. In addition, the agreement should have ensured that any sanctions relief should be phased in through a slow and deliberate manner, rather than immediately removed.

“The deal announced by the administration today fails to achieve even one of these benchmarks and in a shocking turn of events, also includes the lifting of the U.N. Arms Embargo – something that makes a bad deal even worse. I can’t in good faith support an agreement that fails to even meet the minimum standards outlined by the Administration at the beginning of this process. Instead, more weapons will be given to the world’s biggest state sponsor of terrorism, putting the stability of the Middle East in jeopardy and threatening to create a new nuclear arms race. In addition, it puts our closest ally in the region, Israel, in grave danger.”

Congressman Paulsen, a champion of small business and advocate of free enterprise, entrepreneurship, and innovation, serves on the House Ways and Means Committee, the bicameral Joint Economic Committee, and is co-chair of the Congressional Medical Technology Caucus.

For more information on Congressman Paulsen’s work in Congress visit paulsen.house.gov. 

###