Republicans denounced President Obama’s nuclear agreement with Iran on Wednesday as most Democrats said they would have to study it or said they supported the work of negotiators.
Sen. Bob Menendez, a Democrat from Paramus who co-sponsored a law setting the framework for how Congress will review the agreement, said the deal reached by the United States, Russia and European powers to be “worrisome” because it called for lifting economic sanctions without requiring Iran to end all uranium enrichment.
“The bottom line is: The deal doesn’t end Iran’s nuclear program – it preserves it,” Menendez said, noting Iran could “keep their nuclear infrastructure in place, and have a pathway to pursuing a nuclear bomb in 10 to 15 years.”
At the same time, he stopped short of saying he’d oppose it the deal on the Senate floor, quoting New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman’s characterization that it could be the “best bad deal” possible.