The United States must continue to "economically strangle" Iran, but also be prepared to take military action, along with allies in the Middle East and Israel, if its actions continue, former Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., said Monday, after Iran's announcement it is in violation of the international nuclear deal.
"Nothing else will stop them," Lieberman told Fox News' "America's Newsroom," adding that military action is "always a last option [but] everything else seems to fail with them."
The Trump administration announced Monday it is targeting members of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's inner circle with sanctions. The administration is also issuing a reward of up to $20 million for information about missing former FBI agent Robert Levinson.
Iran's announcement about being in violation is significant as it comes on the 40th anniversary of the seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, Lieberman said.
He also called the nuclear agreement a bad deal, because it gave Iran "for nothing over $100 billion, which they distributed to terrorist groups around the Middle East and the world."
Further, economic sanctions imposed by Congress also were already effective, Lieberman said.
"It put the brakes on for a short period of time," Lieberman said of the agreement. "In some ways, it legitimized them to [start] developing nuclear weapons after 10 or 12 years. Well, I'm glad President [Donald] Trump broke out of that agreement and now we see what they're doing."
He added he was fascinated by this year's demonstrations in Iran, as they were not only anti-American and anti-Israel but also railed against Emmanuel Macron, the president of France, even though he had tried to come up with a compromise in the deal.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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