The United States has thrown in the towel in keeping tabs on Iran's development of nuclear weapons with the arms deal it inked with the Middle East nation this week, Elliott Abrams, former deputy national security adviser to President George W. Bush, tells Newsmax TV.
"We basically, by signing this deal, said, 'Oh we're not going to do any intelligence activities, we're not going to do any subversion, we're just going to leave it alone; we now have a deal,'" Abrams said Thursday on "The Steve Malzberg Show."
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"The Israelis, as they say, are not signing up to this deal. I assume that they will continue to do whatever they can to screw up the Iranian nuclear program.
"Whether they'll go to the extent of doing military strikes, I don't think they're going to do it this week but for them all options are really on the table."
Under the historic deal reached by United States and five other world powers to scale back Iran's nuclear program, financial sanctions imposed by the U.S., the European Union and United Nations would be lifted.
In return, Iran agrees to lengthy curbs on its nuclear program, which many believe was aiming at the building of a nuclear bomb. Israel has strongly condemned the deal.
Abrams, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, said it is imperative for Congress to reject the deal.
"It would really send a message. It would be important for Arabs and Israelis to know that if there is a Republican president, he can refer back to what the Republican Congress did and not be bound by this deal even if there isn't a deal," Abrams told Steve Malzberg.
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