DeLauro on President Trump’s Iran Deal: “Why Did We Go To War?”

Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03), Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Committee, issued the following statement regarding President Trump's signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with Iran, the first stage of a deal which provides for an end to immediate fighting along with significant concessions to Iran and a commitment to further negotiations:

"After reviewing the terms of President Trump's Memorandum of Understanding, I have one question: why did we go to war?

"None of the President's aims have been achieved. The authoritarian Iranian regime is still in power. They retain their stores of enriched uranium and a significant arsenal of ballistic missiles, along with their regional proxy militias. This MOU commits Iran to nothing but reopening the Strait of Hormuz, which was open before the war began. Meanwhile, the Iranian government receives the ability to resume selling its oil. It retains the ability to charge tolls for passage through the Strait after 60 days. It receives access to a reconstruction fund worth nearly $300 billion, and it allows the lifting of nearly all US economic sanctions. President Trump even said that Iran may be able to keep its ballistic missile program, ensuring it is able to continue threatening our Middle East allies.

"Why did we go to war-a war that killed 13 Americans and an untold amount of Iranian civilians, and cost the American people tens of billions of dollars in higher fuel and grocery prices during a cost of living crisis-if this is all President Trump could achieve?

"The President tore up the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which subjected Iran to the strictest nuclear inspection regime in history and successfully kept it from enriching uranium for years, because he thought he could do better. He failed, and the American people, our Middle East allies, and our nation's credibility will pay the price."