Senator Chuck Grassley
Senator Chuck Grassley is voicing some doubts about the preliminary agreement that President Obama calls the “best bet, by far” to prevent Iran from gaining a nuclear weapon. “I have every reason to be skeptical and I want to emphasize I’m very skeptical,” Grassley says.
However, Grassley is withholding final judgment until the deal is final. “Just like you ought to read a bill before you vote for it, I think you ought to read a document before you comment on it,” Grassley says. “I can say that I’m skeptical, not based upon just the last 18 months of negotiation, but also based upon going eve back to the Bush Administration that there were so many times the Iranian government promised to deliver certain things and certain agreements would be reached they backed off.”
Grassley says he concerned that Iran has resisted on-the-spot inspections of their nuclear facitilities. “If we can have a disarmament agreement with Iran like we had over decades with Russia, I would very much applaud it,” Grassley says. “It’s a framework. I would want to wait until June 30th and beyond that to study what the details are. I think it would be foolish to make a judgment right now.”
Grassley says if the deal is finalized by the end of June, President Obama needs to submit it to congress for approval. Grassley made his comments this weekend during an appearance on Iowa Public Television’s “Iowa Press” program