Obama: Republicans Oppose Deal Over Politics

Republicans who oppose the nuclear deal with Iran are doing so for political reasons more than anything else, President Barack Obama claimed on Monday.

 

“Unfortunately, a large portion of the Republican Party, if not a near unanimous portion of Republican representatives, are going to be opposed to anything that I do, and I have not oftentimes based that on a judgment on the merits, but have based that on their politics,” Obama told NPR in an interview.

 

“And I don’t think that’s a surprise to anybody. What I do know, though, is, is that when this agreement is implemented and we’ve seen centrifuges coming out of facilities like Fordow and Natanz, and we’ve got inspectors on the ground and it becomes clear that Iran in fact is abiding by this agreement, then attitudes will change, because people will recognize that, in fact, whatever parade of horribles was presented in opposition have not come true,” he continued.

 

Obama expressed confidence that as the agreement with Iran is implemented, “will see, in fact, more and more folks pull out of the immediate politics of it and judge it on the basis of whether it was the right thing to do for the country.”

 

The deal, claimed the president, “cuts off all the pathways for Iran getting a nuclear weapon. In exchange, Iran gets relief from the sanctions that we organized, systematically, with the international community over the last several years that’s crippled their economy and forced them back to the table.”

 

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