GOP lawmaker would rather have ‘no deal’ than Obama’s Iran deal

A GOP lawmaker says he’d rather have “no deal” than accept President Obama’s tentative nuclear agreement with Iran.

“President Obama has said on multiple occasions that no deal is better than a bad deal,” Rep. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.) wrote in a Times of Israel op-ed. “No deal is certainly better than this deal.”

Roskam argued that the Obama administration is opting to delay Iran’s nuclear program instead of completely ending it.

{mosads}“The Obama administration has reversed our policy towards Iran from prevention to containment — as dangerous an innovation as any ‘Obama Doctrine’ has ever been,” he wrote. “The Administration has chosen to reward the mullahs for minor, cosmetic tweaks to their nuclear program in exchange for tacit acceptance of Tehran’s belligerence and explicit approval of Iran as a threshold nuclear state.

“So much for President Obama’s goal post of forcing Iran to ‘give up its nuclear program,’ ” he concluded.

The Illinois lawmaker also criticized Obama’s belief that any final agreement with Tehran doesn’t need congressional approval. A truly sound bargain, Roskam argued, would survive review by any potential critics.

“If this deal is, as President Obama insists, a ‘good deal,’ he should be more than happy to let Congress and the American people see it fully, unfiltered by spin, to judge for themselves,” he said.

U.S. negotiators reached a framework accord with Iran over its nuclear energy program on April 2. President Obama cheered it as a “historic” success.

The tentative deal would reduce sanctions on Iran’s economy in exchange for greater oversight of its nuclear program and a halt to weapons research.

Tehran has informally accepted international inspections and caps on its centrifuge and uranium stockpiles as part of the draft agreement.

Secretary of State John Kerry spearheaded talks with Iran in Lausanne, Switzerland, earlier this month. Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia also participated.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has vowed his nation would honor the deal’s preliminary language, but the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has yet to endorse the agreement.

The two sides must finalize the exact details before a June 30 final deadline.