Senate Republicans in somber, pessimistic mood over Trump deal with Iran

President Trump’s deal to lift sanctions on Iran and give it access to a $300 billion reconstruction fund has cast a glum mood over the Senate Republican conference, with GOP senators saying that many of their colleagues are “in dismay” and “somber” over the cost of the agreement.

Trump’s most vocal MAGA allies on Capitol Hill are defending the agreement as a potential breakthrough that could finally end Iran’s nuclear enrichment program.

But many more GOP senators are skeptical about reaching any real agreement with Iran, arguing that the United States doesn’t seem to have any real leverage in the talks.

While a handful of Republican senators have slammed Trump’s memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Iran in public statements, Senate sources say many more within the Senate GOP conference feel uncomfortable over the details of the agreement and pessimistic it will produce a satisfactory result.  

“I think there is a high level of dismay in that room,” said a Republican senator, who requested anonymity to discuss what GOP colleagues were thinking about Trump’s Iran deal as they gathered for a lunch meeting in the Capitol Thursday.

The senator predicted that Congress won’t ever get a chance to vote on the matter because talks with Iran are unlikely to produce a signed agreement to end its nuclear program, a view that his shared by other Republican senators.

“I think it’s unlikely that an agreement will be reached and signed,” the source said.

A second Republican senator who requested anonymity to discuss the deflated mood among GOP colleagues described the Senate Republican reaction to the deal as “somber.”

“It was a somber mood, people are a little shell-shocked. All the money in this deal for Iran is going to be a real problem,” the senator said.

Many Republican senators feel aghast at the huge economic windfall Iran could receive from an immediate end of sanctions on oil exports, the unfreezing of its assets around the world and potential access to the $300 billion reconstruction fund.

GOP critics of the deal say the text of the agreement released this week fails to address Iran’s missile stockpile, which remains at 70 percent of its prewar capacity, according to a CIA assessment, and does nothing to bar Iran from funding its militant........

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