Rick Scott doesn't often comment on foreign-policy issues, but did today regarding the major deal that President Obama and the P5+1 world powers made with Iran over the weekend that compels Tehran to limit its nuclear program in exchange for lighter economic sanctions.
The Governor is giving it a thumbs-down.
“President Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran does nothing to stop the country’s pursuit of nuclear weapons," he said in a statement. "The deal relieves Iran from economic sanctions while allowing them to continue to enrich uranium. This could prove to be a dangerous formula for the safety of our ally Israel, the Middle East and the world."
That sentiment is shared by many Republicans in Florida and around the nation.
However one Florida Republican Congressman known for at times making some rather dubious statements, Ted Yoho from Gainesville, issued a downright diplomatic statement from his perch on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
"I welcome the opportunity for diplomacy, it is always preferable to sending our sons and daughters into harm's way,” Yoho said on Monday. “Let it never be forgotten that military action has its costs, certainly on the American taxpayer, but most importantly on the lives and families of the brave men and women we send into the battlefield. For that reason I am hopeful for peace, however President Rouhani's past actions and statements require a skeptical eye. Iran remains the world's leading state sponsor of terror. In this deal, the devil is truly in the details. The verify part needs to come before the trust."
Taking a relatively moderate tone on anything regarding the president is a bit of a change of pace for the freshman Representative. Or don't you recall his statement during the government shutdown last month that not raising the debt ceiling would "bring stability to the world markets."
But the general thrust from Florida Republicans is that the deal is too lenient on Iran. Sarasota's Vern Buchanan said in a statement that “The stakes are too high to trust a regime that has proven it cannot be trusted. This dangerously reckless agreement allows Iran to continue its pursuit of nuclear weapons.”
“The only reason Iran came to the bargaining table in the first place is because the sanctions are working,” Buchanan continued. “Now is the time to tighten the economic noose — not loosen it — if we want to end their nuclear program once and for all.”
CNN reports that the major nations of the world will suspend sanctions on various items, including gold and petrochemical exports. That suspension will provide Iran with about $1.5 billion in revenue, according to the White House.
