Congressman Steve King. (file photo)

Congressman Steve King. (file photo)

Republican Congressman Steve King says he’ll review all the details, but he’s more than skeptical of the nuclear deal Iran, the U.S. and five other countries have just struck.

“I’ve listened to what they’re saying in places like Israel, who rejects this deal and I’m very concerned that this starts the nuclear arms race in the Middle East,” King said Tuesday afternoon. “If Saudi Arabia is against it, if Israel is against it, how do we think that we’ve made a good deal here?”

King watched on TV early Tuesday as President Obama spoke about the deal.

“It sounded so good and so compelling,” King said in a video statement released by his congressional office. “I felt like I were Rip Van Winkle and I’d been asleep for the last 20 years and I woke up not knowing all that had transpired between us and Iran throughout all these negotiations.”

If the deal is ratified by the U.S. congress and Iran’s supreme leader gives it his blessing, King doubts inspectors who are to be policing Iran’s nuclear capabilities will be able to go wherever they wish in Iran — and King doubts economic sanctions would be restored if Iran fails to grant those inspection requests.

“What really happens is this: $100 billion in sanctions and assets will be released of the Iranians,” King said.

And King believes the oil embargo will be undone for good if this deal goes through, regardless of Iran’s quest for a nuclear weapon or financing of terrorism around the globe.

President Obama said “every pathway to a nuclear weapon” in Iran would be “cut off” by the deal and Obama argues no deal “means a greater chance of war” in the Middle East. Congress now has 60 days to review the deal and take an up or down vote on it.

Negotiators from the United States, Britain, China, Germany, France and Russia spent 20 months negotiating with Iranian diplomats before the deal was announced early Tuesday. Read more reaction from others in Iowa’s congressional delegation, as well as the GOP presidential candidates who were in Iowa when the deal was announced.