Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., criticized the reported terms of a U.S.-Iran agreement after President Donald Trump said the United States and Iran planned to sign a peace framework Sunday.
“This is a terrible deal,” Moulton told MS NOW on Saturday. “It’s basically a surrender document from Donald Trump to the supreme leader of Iran.”
Moulton, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, pointed to the war’s cost.
“I mean, $100 billion of taxpayer money already put into this war, 14 Americans dead, and we get a deal that just reopens the strait that was already open before he started the war? How is that a win?” he said.
A senior U.S. official said Friday that the deal included provisions to prohibit Iran’s nuclear building capabilities and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a key oil shipping route.
Trump said Saturday that a peace framework would be signed Sunday and that the strait would reopen “immediately” afterward. Pakistan, which has mediated the talks, said the agreement would be signed electronically, followed by technical-level talks next week to work toward a peace deal.
“This is just lose, lose, lose across the board for Trump and the United States of America,” Moulton said after Trump’s announcement.
He added, “And yet, I will still say that stopping this war and getting out of it is the best that we can do at this point. And so that’s why we are still hoping for a deal, even though we have to admit it’s a losing deal for America.”
Moulton also said Trump had previewed imminent agreements with Iran “countless times.”
“It really sounds like Donald Trump wants a deal,” he said. “It sounds like the Iranians are pretty content dragging out negotiations because guess what? They have a stranglehold on the world economy by closing the strait.”
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei gave a different timeline. Baghaei told Iran’s Tasnim News Agency on Saturday that a signing of the framework deal would “not be tomorrow.”
“The possibility that it will happen in the coming days is not ruled out,” Baghaei said. “However, due to the other party’s instability, we must be cautious about any statements regarding this process.”