Washington - 8 May 2018
++SOTS SEPARATED BY BLACK FRAMES++
1. SOUNDBITE: (English) Sen. Ben Cardin, (D) Maryland:
"I think the president's made a mistake and our objective is to make sure Iran never has a nuclear weapon and to take action against their non-nuclear violations with cooperation of our European partners. And withdrawing from the nuclear agreement isolates America. I think it helps Iran and it works against our objectives to control their type of activities. We need to strictly enforce the nuclear agreement, we need to build on it. We need to isolate Iran. We need to work with our partners and the president by withdrawing from the international agreement has isolated America."
2. SOUNDBITE: (English) Sen. Marco Rubio, (R) Florida:
"Thoughts? Yeah, I'm glad we're out of it. Because it was a terrible deal and if you look at Iran today, they're stronger and more dangerous than they were before the deal. In Yemen, they have effective control, in Syria, they've started a civil war in Yemen. Hezbollah has more weapons and more reach and more political power in Lebanon than ever before. They've exploited the Gulf kingdom divide. The military budgets have grown exponentially. Iran has more influence and is more dangerous today than it was the day before the deal was signed."
3. SOUNDBITE: (English) Sen. Marco Rubio, (R) Florida:
"They knew what was coming. Our allies have known for months and - but here's the bottom line. I campaigned for president and for Senate on the promise of getting rid of this deal. He won on the same promise - he was elected to do this, this is what he said he was going to do. I don't know why it surprises people that someone runs for president. gets elected on the promise of getting rid of the Iran deal and then gets rid of it."
4. SOUNDBITE: (English) Sen. Jeff Flake, (R) Arizona: ++AUDIO AS INCOMING++
"I think that agreement, obviously, had problems. It didn't address Iran's maligned behavior or ballistic missiles. But after you were in it and after Iran has already realized the benefits of it - to now allow them to get out of their obligations on the nuclear side would be foolhardy, in my view. And also it says more about our willingness to work with our allies. We're having enough problems around the world, in terms of our reliability - whether it's trade or you know commercial engagements or security arrangements - to add this now at this point would not be good for us- particularly the knock on effects on other agreements, perhaps with North Korea or certainly security challenges or challenges that are yet to come."
5. SOUNDBITE: (English) Sen. Chris Coons, (D) Delaware:
"This is a truly disappointing development. I think President Trump makes us less safe, less secure by weakening our bonds with our European allies with whom we crafted a deal that stopped the advance of the Iranian nuclear weapons program. I've got a couple of questions for the president. After this, how will we gain North Korea's confidence in any future agreement and how will we gain the confidence of our partners in the JCPOA, the Iran deal - China and Russia, Germany, France and the UK that we will have the inclination to stick with any future deal? I don't think it makes us any safer."
6. SOUNDBITE: (English) Sen. Susan Collins, (R) Maine:
"I didn't see the president's comments yet. In general, I felt that the agreement negotiated by the Obama administration and other parties was flawed because it did not pertain to ballistic missiles and it essentially gave sanctions relief without taking away the ability of the Iranians to ultimately build a nuclear weapon. Nevertheless, I would've preferred a course of action where the president worked with our allies to fix those flaws."
++EDIT ENDS ON SOUNDBITE++
