WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, released a statement on Wednesday following the announcement from Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on moves to restart nuclear activity exactly one year after the Trump administration left the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA):

“This is disastrous news and a massive failure by the Trump administration. Iran’s moves to restart their nuclear program are a direct consequence of the Trump administration withdrawing from the Iran deal and Trump’s blind, meandering escalatory Iranian policy. Critics of the deal President Obama signed argued that it would let Iran restart its nuclear program after a decade; well, President Trump managed to give the Iranians the green light to restart it after only four years.”

“We now have a North Korean regime that is firing rockets with the blessing of our president who lives in a fantasy land where he has an agreement with Kim Jong Un that doesn’t exist. And now Trump has managed to goad the Iranians, who weren’t pursuing a nuclear weapon, to start their effort again. The administration’s own goals in North Korea and Iran make our nation and the world much less safe, and Americans are nervously counting the days until Trump’s reckless hands are off the rudder of American foreign policy,” said Murphy. 

Last May, Murphy blasted the Trump administration’s decision to pull out of the JCPOA. In October 2017, Murphy gave a speech on the dangers of walking away from the Iran Deal. In August 2015, Murphy announced his support for the JCPOA.

###