New York lawmakers Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-Albany), Charles Schumer (D-Brooklyn) and Rep. Steve Israel (D-Huntington) have offered contrasting opinions of a tentative seven-nation agreement to limit Iran’s nuclear capabilities in exchange for relaxing oil and financial sanctions against Tehran.
Gillibrand on Thursday offered support for the deal in a piece for Medium.com, while Schumer used the same website to voice opposition a day later, joining Israel, who in a statement said he is concerned the deal would only prolong Iran’s rise as a nuclear power, that it would exploit ambiguities in the agreement and promote terrorism.
“This is one of the most important foreign policy decisions I’ve had to make in Congress and after weighing all the details of this deal, I believe it is not as bad as some have said, but given my remaining concerns I simply cannot support it,” Israel concluded.
Schumer cited what he considered imperfections in the inspection process, and raised concerns that, with its frozen assets freed up, Iran would have a more favorable position from which to expand its nuclear program.
“To me, the very real risk that Iran will not moderate and will, instead, use the agreement to pursue its nefarious goals is too great,” wrote Schumer, the only Senate Democrat who has so far opposed the deal.
“Therefore, I will vote to disapprove the agreement, not because I believe war is a viable or desirable option, nor to challenge the path of diplomacy,” he added. “It is because I believe Iran will not change, and under this agreement it will be able to achieve its dual goals of eliminating sanctions while ultimately retaining its nuclear and non-nuclear power.”
In her piece, Gillibrand declared the deal was “imperfect” but argued its inclusion of international inspectors to monitor Iran’s retention of nuclear supplies would prove useful despite her skepticism that Tehran and its allies “won’t try to deceive us and our partners.”
“If we reject this deal, we do not have a viable alternative for preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. Without a deal, and without inspectors on the ground, we will be left in the dark as Iran resumes its pursuit of a nuclear weapon, with only months to go before it could enrich enough fissile material for a bomb,” she wrote. “Without a deal, our options will be limited to insufficient unilateral sanctions, an invasion with yet another massive and costly land war in the Middle East, or a bombing campaign that offers nothing more than short-term gain under the best-case scenario.”
Their comments came shortly after President Barack Obama defended the agreement in a speech at American University, criticizing its opposition as “knee-jerk partisanship that has become all too familiar, rhetoric that renders every decision made to be a disaster, a surrender,” according to the New York Times.
“Let’s not mince words: The choice we face is ultimately between diplomacy and some sort of war — maybe not tomorrow, maybe not three months from now, but soon,” Obama said, according to the Times. “How can we in good conscience justify war before we’ve tested a diplomatic agreement that achieves our objectives?”
In the last week, several local lawmakers have also voiced their opinions on the agreement.
U.S. Rep. Kathleen Rice (D-Garden City) opposed the deal in an editorial in the 5 Towns Jewish Times newspaper, writing that she is “unwilling to help economically empower an Iranian regime that could use the cash influx to make more muscular its support of terror and more aggressive its antagonism of Israel and our other allies in the region.”
“President Obama entered into negotiations with Iran because he is a president interested in peace, in Israel’s security, and in avoiding the human and financial sacrifices of another American war in the Middle East,” Rice wrote. “I share these goals, and I genuinely believe the President sees this deal as the best chance of achieving them. But I do not.”
North Hempstead area officials — including Town Supervisor Judi Bosworth, Town Councilman Peter Zukerman, Receiver of Taxes Charles Berman, Town Councilwoman Anna Kaplan, and Town Clerk Wayne Wink and Nassau County legislators Ellen Birnbaum, Judy Jacobs, and Delia DeRiggi-Whitton — signed a letter last month urging federal officials to oppose the Iran nuclear development program.
“We have come to the conclusion that the approval of this deal will not be good for the United States or for Israel and we urge you to vote against it. We appeal to you to do so in the interests of our own national security, the survival of Israel, the security and stability of the Middle East region, and to ensure a world that is free of the threat of a nuclear-capable Iran,” they wrote.
