Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand today released the following statement after President Donald J. Trump announced that he would break U.S. commitments and withdraw from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also known as the Iran Nuclear Agreement:
“I strongly oppose President Trump’s shortsighted and dangerous decision to leave the JCPOA. The agreement gave us the critical ability to aggressively monitor and verify Iran’s behavior. By walking away from the agreement, the President has opened the door to Iran going back to developing a nuclear weapons program. This unilateral decision will cost us the ability to maintain a strong coalition holding Iran accountable and the ability to increase leverage and oversight with our European allies. It also severely undermines our country’s credibility as a partner that can be trusted; this is especially troubling as the Trump Administration prepares to negotiate with North Korea. It took years of coordinated international sanctions coupled with diplomacy to reach this accord and it is a mistake to think we can simply restart this process with a clean slate. I hope that the other parties to the agreement continue to abide by the agreement, and I urge President Trump to reconsider this mistake. Rather than unraveling nuclear oversight, we should be focusing on adding additional levers to address Iran’s dangerous behavior in the region.”