A mid-Michigan Republican representative said he would like to see Congress asking more questions about the Iran war.
Members of Congress have received closed-door briefings, but Democrats are pushing for public hearings on the war and President Donald Trump’s handling of the conflict.
Dozens of Democratic lawmakers are saying President Donald Trump should be removed from office after he threatened Iranian civilization would “die” if it didn’t meet his demands. The White House has defended Trump’s rhetoric as effective.
Republican Tom Barrett, a military veteran, said the country needs to learn lessons from wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the Global War on Terrorism.
“Certainly war is a very, very serious thing. Use of force and conflict is a very serious thing that I think we need to take seriously as members of Congress,” said Barrett, who represents Michigan's 7th Congressional District.
Barrett said he’s hoping the shaky ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran can still produce a positive long-term result.
The tentative ceasefire in the Iran war has staggered under the weight of Israel’s bombardment of Beirut and Tehran’s continued chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz.
For Barrett, any good deal must include an end to Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
“We have to make sure, obviously, that belligerent regimes like those in Iran that wish us harm don’t have the means to produce a nuclear weapon,” said Barrett.
The fate of Iran’s missile and nuclear programs — which the U.S. and Israel sought to eliminate in going to war — also remained unclear. The U.S. insists Iran must never be able to build nuclear weapons and wants to remove Tehran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium, which could be used to build them. Iran insists its program is peaceful.
Trump said Wednesday that the U.S. would work with Iran to remove the uranium, buried in last year's U.S. and Israeli strikes, though Iran did not confirm that. In one version of the ceasefire deal that Iran published, it said it would be allowed to continue enrichment.
The chief of Iran’s nuclear agency, Mohammad Eslami, said Thursday that protecting Tehran’s right to enrich uranium is “necessary” for any ceasefire talks.
Trump warned that U.S. warships and troops will remain around Iran “until such time as the REAL AGREEMENT reached is fully complied with.”
