Beyer Statement on MOU Agreed to by US, Iran

Congressman Don Beyer (D-VA) today issued the following statement on the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) agreed to by the United States and Iran:

"The President should never have started this war. It was not smart, it was not legal, it was not morally justified, and it was not in our national interest.

"The American people never asked for this war, yet they have borne its costs from the very beginning. Thirteen American servicemembers have been killed and hundreds more have been injured. Countless civilians have lost their lives, including Iranian schoolgirls killed by U.S. military action - a tragedy carried out in our name that should shame us all. Americans have also felt the consequences here at home. Families are struggling to afford gas, energy bills, and groceries as this conflict continues to drive up costs and fuel inflation.

"While I welcome efforts to negotiate an end to this war, this MOU lays bare the utter failure of the President's strategy. Not only is it worse that what was on offer prior to the US-Israeli bombing campaign, it also fails to improve on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) which the president so foolishly cast aside during his first term against the advice of his own national security advisors.

"This MOU is the natural result of an ill-conceived military campaign rooted in hubris and willful ignorance and marked by shifting war goals that could not be met even as they were continually scaled back. It will be one of the defining documents of President Trump's thoughtless, ignorant, corrupt, and violent approach to government and his disgraced administration.

"I can only hope that the cheerleaders of this war find some humility now that the world can see the consequences of what they have wrought, and if they cannot, that their counsel is comprehensively rejected by our nation and its leaders in the months and years ahead.

"Diplomacy was always the best way to advance our national security interests with Iran, and it remains the only viable path forward."