Iran will have to agree to make some changes if it expects the United States to remain part of the Obama-era nuclear deal, Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., a member of the House Foreign Relations Committee said Monday.
"There's a sunset provision," Zeldin told Fox News' "America's Newsroom" co-host Sandra Smith.
"Here in our country, if you think of 2027, that seems like a lifetime from now. In the lifetime of the nation of Iran, that's nothing."
The deal meant President Barack Obama would give Iran $150 billion of sanctions relief, that the regime that was struggling to stay in power would get to remain, and "on top of it, they can basically break out with a nuclear program in 2027 anyway."
Further, he said, the deal is not a blueprint that will prevent the country from having nuclear weapons, but it will serve as "a pathway for how Iran obtains a nuclear weapon," Zeldin said.
In addition, the deal contains a verification agreement that has not yet been seen.
"It has been reported that Iran collects some of its own soils samples, they inspect their own nuclear sites," Zeldin said. "So, President [Donald] Trump gets it. His instincts going back to the campaign was not to continue with the nuclear deal. In order to continue with it, Iran will have to stop violating the letter of the deal, and we're also going to have to see some changes to the substance of it."
Zeldin also compared Trump's presidency with Obama's when it comes to Russia, and told the program the president has done more than his predecessor last week than Obama did in eight years.
He does think President Trump will end up enacting more sanctions on Russia, however, because of how it meddles in other countries.
"They meddle in Afghanistan, where they work with the Taliban, and we have U.S. service members and coalition services in harm's way," Zeldin said. "They meddle in Syria. They meddle here in the United States. When they meddle with our own elections, that's not something unique to just us. They do it all over the entire map. So, I don't believe that whether it's these past sanctions or the next sanctions, I don't think Russia's going to change their behavior."
Russian President Vladimir Putin was reelected over the weekend with more than three-quarters of the vote, so he will not likely change his behavior very quickly, Zeldin said.
The congressman also commented on the nomination of CIA Director Mike Pompeo to replace fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, telling the program he believes Pompeo can be "one of the greatest American diplomats this country has ever seen."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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