Mazie Hirono: “Donald Trump and the hawks in his administration are fueling a dangerous escalation with Iran, and instead of taking…”

“Donald Trump and the hawks in his administration are fueling a dangerous escalation with Iran, and instead of taking responsibility for this escalation, the President is once again blaming others for a crisis of his own making. Adding to the confusion and concern is the President's penchant for using his Twitter account or an outburst from the Oval Office to jump between calling for restraint and embracing a potential war. Instead of listening to the President's latest outbursts or dissecting his latest tweet, let's take a hard look at what he has done to bring us to this dangerous moment. In May 2018, Trump followed the lead of the hawks in his administration and unilaterally--unilaterally--pulled out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the JCPOA, breaking the agreement and leaving its other signatories, especially our allies in Europe, holding the bag. Only a few weeks earlier, Jim Mattis, the President's own Secretary of Defense, told the Senate Armed Services Committee, on which I sit, that the agreement was working as intended and had been written with an assumption that Iran would try to cheat. He went on to note that while the deal was imperfect, it established a strong verification and inspection regime that Iran was complying with the agreement. I continue to agree with Secretary Mattis's conclusions. The purpose of the JCPOA was to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon within a 2- to 3-month timeframe.…”