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Washington, Jun 19 (PTI): US President Donald Trump’s deal with Iran to end the war faced strong pushback from fellow Republicans, who claimed that the pact did not prevent Tehran from enriching uranium and gave it a lot of money to fund its proxies.

The sharpest criticism was for the fund that Iran would get access to for reconstruction and economic development, with Senator Roger Wicker on Thursday asserting that the amount made the payoffs to Tehran under President Obama’s 2015 nuclear deal look like a pittance.

Wicker, the chairman of the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee, said he was “concerned” that the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz “negotiates away the victories of Operation Epic Fury in ways that are completely out of step with the President’s goals”.

Operation Epic Fury was the codename for the US-led military campaign against Iran during the recent conflict, involving air and missile strikes on Iranian nuclear, military and strategic infrastructure.

“Specifically, the USD 300 billion fund for the reconstruction and economic development of Iran – though not funded by US taxpayers – would make Iran’s payoff under President Obama’s 2015 deal look like a pittance by comparison,” Wicker, a Republican from Mississippi, said in a statement.

Asked about the criticism of the deal from within the Republican conference, Vice President Vance said the critics should have some “faith” in the president, as the idea that he would reach a “bad” deal for the American people is “preposterous”.

"He is the person who has had the courage to fundamentally transform our relationship with Iran and with a lot of other countries over the last year and a half.

"He believes in this deal; he is going to see it to completion, and if the Iranians don’t comply, we still have every single tool and point of leverage that we have today,” Vance said at a press conference at the White House.

Calling the war and its outcome the “worst foreign policy blunder in decades”, Senator Bill Cassidy from Louisiana, in a social media post, said, “Ronald Reagan is rolling over in his grave.” Iran’s nuclear ambitions were not curbed, and they have learned that threatening the Strait of Hormuz works and will undoubtedly leverage it in the future. Now, Iran gets to build brand-new infrastructure under this deal, he said.

“Now, 13 Americans are dead, families have paid billions at the pump, sanctions will be lifted, and the bombing has stopped,” Cassidy added.

Some Republican Senators also voiced concern that the deal will immediately lift sanctions on Iranian oil exports and may lead to the unfreezing of Iranian assets around the world.

“History teaches that giving billions of dollars to theocratic lunatics who want to murder us is not a good idea. I think the president is receiving some very poor advice on this deal,” said Senator Ted Cruz of Texas.

Senator John Cornyn, also from Texas, said the lack of significant Iranian concessions on its nuclear programme, its weapons arsenal and its long-standing practice of funding militant proxies throughout the Middle East raises serious concerns.

He pointed out that the deal doesn't prevent Iran from continuing to enrich uranium or toll the strait, and “it gives them a lot of money they can use to fund their proxies”.

Senator Thom Tillis from North Caroline said Trump appears to have fallen well short of his objectives at the start of the war.

“You got to do the balance of accounts: a hundred billion roughly, maybe more, spent today; 13 dead, 365 wounded, injured; our partners in the Middle East bombed, they’ve had casualties. There’s got to be a lot of return on that.

“We set out by saying we were going to drive down to zero their nuclear capability. Now we’re equivocating on that. We said that we were not going to make the mistake that Obama did by sending them a plane full of cash. I got to reconcile the numbers there,” he said.

Senator Lindsey Graham from South Carolina, one of Trump’s closest allies in the Senate, acknowledged Iran probably won’t agree to a deal to give up its nuclear enrichment programme but argued it would be worth a try to reach a lasting deal to stop it from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

“It opens up the Strait, it continues the suspension of hostilities, it creates space to see if you can get a deal — I doubt if they can — on the nuclear program, but why not try,” Graham said.

“If you can find a diplomatic solution to the Iranian nuclear ambitions, go for it. The MoU puts that in place,” he said. PTI SKU SCY SCY

(This story is published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. No editing has been done in the headline or the body by ABP Live.)