President Joe Biden has repeatedly expressed his intent to reenter the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement. That would be a terrible mistake because the United States should never reenter the flawed agreement. While many of my colleagues in the U.S. Congress and I would support diplomatic efforts to end the United States’ decades-long standoff with the Iranian regime, a new and significantly improved agreement must be negotiated for us to consider supporting it.
The original Iran deal, after all, was a gift to the Iranian regime—a regime that supports terrorist organizations around the world, harbors al Qaeda, and has its supporters chant “death to America and Israel.” The agreement lifted major sanctions on Tehran while only partially restricting its nuclear activities—and those restrictions begin expiring in 2025. The deal also failed to address the regime’s ongoing development of ballistic missiles, support for terrorism against U.S. partners, attacks on U.S. personnel, and sheltering of al Qaeda operatives—all activities that have been widely reported in the press. It certainly did not advance U.S. national security objectives.
