According to President Donald Trump, the preliminary deal reached by the United States and Iran to end the war the U.S. and Israel launched last February and reopen the strait of Hormuz is cause for celebration.
But the fact that it defers the resolution of major issues like Iran’s nuclear capability, sanctions relief, and Israel’s ongoing offensive in Lebanon has members of Massachusetts’ all-Democratic congressional delegation giving the deal a much cooler reception.
“We need a deal to staunch the bleeding from this dumb, losing war, but it sounds like an absolutely terrible deal,” said Rep. Seth Moulton. “We’re basically paying off the Iranians [via anticipated sanctions relief and a proposed postwar reconstruction fund] to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. It was always open before Trump started this stupid war. And it doesn’t seem like he even has any semblance of the restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program that President Obama was able to achieve.
“I don’t think we talk enough about how much this costs Americans,” Mouton added. “We talk a lot about how the Trump Administration has failed. But let’s just remember: this has raised inflation for everybody. This has raised gas prices for everybody. This has made life much more unaffordable in America for everybody — and all of this under Donald Trump’s watch. Not to mention the families of 14 Americans [killed in the war] who will never get those patriots back.”
Rep. Ayanna Pressley also welcomed the ceasefire, calling it “necessary and overdue,” while lamenting what she called President Trump’s blind support for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s longstanding animus against the Iranian regime.
“It is essential that this ceasefire holds and brings meaningful peace to the region and the millions of civilians who have been displaced or lost loved ones,” Pressley said through a spokesperson. “We have been pressing hard to stop this unjust war and stop Trump’s abuse of power.
”Innocent civilians and U.S. service members have been killed,“ Pressley added. ”Trump never had a plan on how to end this war, or a clear reason that he started it in the first place. He has supported Netanyahu’s barbaric warfare at the expense of communities and home and abroad.“
U.S. Rep. Jake Auchincloss offered a terser assessment of Trump’s diplomacy through a spokesperson, saying: “Millions have suffered for what will be a worse [nuclear] deal than he tore up in his first term.”
U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch told GBH News that he’s troubled by the lack of specificity in the newly announced deal.
“I think ‘preliminary’ is kind,” Lynch said. “I’m not quite sure what they have agreed upon. It appears that a lot has been kicked down the road to a later time. The custody and disposition of the remaining nuclear fuel was not a subject of this so-called agreement. The Iranians are reporting that they’re getting $12 billion [in unfrozen assets] and that in return they’re thinking about allowing ships and oil to flow through the strait [of Hormuz], but that would be agreed upon later, apparently.”
“There’s also a condition in there about Lebanon,” Lynch added. “[Iran is] saying that as part of this deal, the U.S. assured them that the attacks between Israel and Lebanon would cease. However, I believe that Netanyahu has refuted that aspect of the deal — so again, like I say, there are a lot of moving parts here and non of them seem settled. I’m not quite sure what we’ve got here.”
On “X,” Sen. Ed Markey posted: “Trump says he reached a deal with Iran to extend the ceasefire and open the Strait of Hormuz. In other words, to get us back to where we were before Trump launched his reckless, expensive, and unnecessary war. Was this worth the lives, money, and risk? No way.”
This story is developing.
