Bipartisan Criticism Erupts Over Trump's Iran Deal
US political figures from across the spectrum voiced fresh objections on Sunday to Donald Trump's provisional deal with Iran, even as the president made new threats and Vice-President JD Vance hailed progress during the first round of direct peace talks in Switzerland.
Negotiations in Lucerne between the US and Iran have already encountered difficulties after Trump wrote on Truth Social that "Iran must immediately stop their highly paid PROXIES in Lebanon from causing trouble. If they don't, we'll hit Iran very hard again, just like we did last week, only harder!!!"
Iranian Negotiators Walk Out of Talks
Iran's state news agency IRNA reported that Iranian negotiators walked out of the building where the peace talks were being held. "The delegation of the Islamic Republic of Iran, after meeting with the Qatari delegation as one of the mediating parties, left the building where the negotiations were being held," IRNA said. The agency added, "At the same time as the talks began in Switzerland, Donald Trump published a message on X in which he repeated his threats and remarks against Iran."
Senator Cornyn and Susan Rice Lead Criticism
Senator John Cornyn, a Texas Republican who recently lost his primary battle for re-election, posted a line from a Wall Street Journal article on how rogue regimes evade US economic warfare, noting that "Iran's ability to withstand sanctions so far exposes a hard fact for Washington: economic pressure has largely failed to cow rogue regimes." He had earlier expressed hope that before striking a deal involving releasing restricted Iranian funds, the US would have "finished the job" and eliminated Iran's hostile nuclear capability, warning that "now they will use that money to replace their ballistic missile assets and begin to enrich [uranium] again."
On Sunday morning, senior Democratic figure Susan Rice, a former US ambassador to the United Nations and national security adviser under Barack Obama, called the agreement between the US and Iran a "jaw-dropping, horrific surrender" by Trump, describing it as "flimsy" and "egregious" because "so many concessions were granted up front." Rice told ABC News This Week that the concessions in the memorandum of understanding (MOU), signed by Trump in Paris last Wednesday, "wouldn't normally be, and shouldn't have been, granted until after there was not only a fully comprehensive deal to, at least, deal with their nuclear program, but also that those provisions that were negotiated had been agreed." She pointed to a provision allowing Iran "to sell all of its oil and all of its oil products on the market unimpeded, and use that money to rebuild itself" ahead of any nuclear agreement.
Trump Threatens Renewed Attacks
The bipartisan criticism came as Trump threatened to renew military attacks on Iran if it did not cooperate and rein in its proxy in Lebanon, Hezbollah, including a forcible takeover by the US of control of the Strait of Hormuz shipping channel. The New York Post tabloid, owned by Rupert Murdoch, published a withering editorial headlined: "With Strait of Hormuz held hostage, Trump's Iran deal is worse than Obama's."
Senator Booker Calls Deal 'Abject Surrender'
Senator Cory Booker, a Democrat from New Jersey, rejected an invitation to offer Trump credit for ending the war. "That's like literally an arsonist starting a fire and getting credit for running out of the burning building. This president has led this nation into a disaster. We have surrendered our power," Booker told NBC's Meet the Press. "We have capitulated to the enemy. And they now are mocking us." He said that under the MOU, "Iran gets all of the benefits, literally billions and billions of dollars" and called it "an abject surrender."
Vance Reports Progress in Lucerne Talks
As the first round of face-to-face US-Iran talks in Lake Lucerne wrapped up late on Sunday morning, Vance said negotiators had "already made great progress over just the last few hours, and I expect that we'll make additional progress in the hours to come." Regarding Israel's continued military operations in Lebanon, Vance said "these things are always a little bit messy ... but I actually feel great about where we are in Lebanon. There's still some additional wood to chop, but we're going to keep on working."
Additional Reactions and Energy Secretary Comments
Last week, Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas said Trump was getting bad advice on Iran. "History demonstrates that giving billions of dollars to theocratic lunatics who want to murder us is an exceptionally bad idea," he said. Meanwhile, US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said on ABC's This Week that the Lucerne talks would "set out what the Iranian goals are and what they think the tradeoffs they might have to make are." He noted that the US military actions have "just put the Iranians in a massively different situation. They don't have the leverage they've always had in talks before." Wright declined to predict when US consumers would see a return to pre-war gas prices, but said, "They will continue to head down. Flows of oil and natural gas through the strait have already returned to normal, and they will continue that way, whatever happens with the negotiations with the Iranians."
