Sen. Charles Schumer voted against the Iran nuclear deal reached by former President Obama in 2015 — but on Sunday he said the pact should be given more time to work after President Trump refused to recertify it.
“I had a great deal of misgivings about the Iran nuclear deal. I voted against it but now we ought to see, give it time to work,” Schumer, the Senate Democratic minority leader, said following a press conference at his Manhattan office.
“The worst things Iran is doing now are not within the nuclear deal but outside of it,” he said.
Schumer slammed Iran for building intercontinental ballistic missiles and “funding terrorists, particularly Hezbollah, which has huge amounts of rockets in Lebanon.
He said the “proper compromise” is to increase sanctions on Iran for those “non- nuclear areas” that don’t violate the Iran-nuke deal.
Trump on Friday refused to certify that Iran was complying with the deal. But his action is partly symbolic because it does not nullify the pact also signed by European countries.
Schumer angered Obama and rattled fellow Democrats when he come out against the agreement in 2015.
“In explaining his no-vote, Schumer said, “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.”
“Better to keep U.S. sanctions in place, strengthen them, enforce secondary sanctions on other nations, and pursue the hard-trodden path of diplomacy once more, difficult as it may be. For all of these reasons, I believe the vote to disapprove is the right one.”