By Debbie Gregory.
The Iran nuclear deal will leave Tehran as a growing power and require the United States to increase its spending on the military, according to four House Republicans
Rep. Mac Thornberry, Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-Ind.), Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) and Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) all House Armed Services Committee members, expressed this opinion, saying that after the deal negotiated by the Obama administration is implemented and sanctions are limited, Congress will need to play a role in preventing problems with Iran from growing.
They expressed concerns that lifted sanctions would allow Iran to pour money into terrorist groups, cyber attacks and ballistic missiles, and encourage an arms race in the region.
Rep. Thornberry said, “There’s a tendency to say, ‘Oh, there’s an agreement. We can breathe a sigh of relief. Everything’s going to be OK.’ That’s not the case here. This agreement means billions more for all the sorts of activities that we described Iran is doing that causes problems in the world.”
Thornberry cited Iran’s support for the Taliban in Afghanistan, the Houthi in Yemen and Hezbollah in Lebanon as activities that would be allowed to continue and grow under the deal.
“We’re going to have more problems, not fewer. And that goes back to the defense budget issue. We cannot cut defense anymore,” he said. He also emphasized the need to approve the National Defense Authorization Act, which would authorize $612 billion in funding for the Pentagon.
Rep. Walorski added, “Iran is the largest state sponsor of terrorism, and this is not really addressed at all.”
“There is more investment in our nuclear deterrents than we’ve had for a while, and we’re going to need that as nuclear weapons spread around the world,” he said “Building military capability is key, and we are trying to push that.”
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