New York Rep. Eliot Engel, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said Tuesday that he's troubled by aspects of the nuclear deal with Iran, which he added doesn't really prevent the country from getting a nuclear weapon.
"It's not a matter of hearing the answers that I want to hear," Engel told WCBS Newsradio 880. "It's a matter of trying to be satisfied that this deal is the way that we should move forward. I'm troubled by aspects of this deal."
"I'm troubled that what this essentially does is after fifteen years it legitimatizes Iran as a nuclear threshold state. After fifteen years Iran can produce weapons-grade highly-enriched uranium without limitations and that is disturbing because what that means to me is it really doesn't prevent Iran from having a nuclear weapon. It just postpones it. I have to try work through that."
The New York Democrat singled out a provision giving Iran up to 24 days to give inspectors access to nuclear sites as something he said was worrying.
"It's questions like that that concern us," he added.
Engel said sanctions relief would make Iran "awash in cash," and might use that money to fund terrorism.
"These are things that are very concerning to me," Engel said, adding that he found it "disconcerting" Iran still had American hostages.
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