Congresswoman McCollum Statement on Ceasefire Extension in Iran

SAINT PAUL, Minn. - Congresswoman Betty McCollum, the Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, issued the following statement on Monday upon reports of a ceasefire extension between President Trump and Iranian negotiators:

"President Trump's reckless decision to take the United States to war with Iran without congressional authorization has been a disastrous failure. Not only has the president's war of choice utterly failed to deliver on his own shifting military goals, but it has also cost the American people directly by increasing prices for necessities like groceries, housing, health care, utilities, gasoline, and more. Now, President Trump is attempting to negotiate with Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which was not closed prior to the start of the war. The war has left the U.S. in a precarious geopolitical position, and it has made the world a more dangerous place.
"In the first hours of the war, President Trump spoke of eliminating the Iranian regime through U.S. military strikes and a popular uprising of the Iranian people. Not only did these objectives fail to materialize, but President Trump's war has had the opposite effect on Iran. The Iranian regime is emboldened, and it is more tightly controlled by hardliners and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps than it was prior to the war. This will make the prospects for long-term peace with Iran more difficult.

"The president's new agreement with Iran is just a tenuous sixty-day extension of the existing ceasefire. The framework announced by President Trump does nothing to resolve the most critical issues in this conflict, such as the status of the Iranian nuclear program, ballistic missile programs, frozen Iranian financial assets, or imposed U.S. sanctions. Nor does it ensure Israel will honor its ceasefire with Lebanon and cease and desist in its use of U.S. munitions in that conflict. Without a resolution to these issues, long-term peace and stability in the region will remain out of reach."

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