A senior Pentagon official has expressed support for the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries, saying that the agreement is still in the best interests of the United States despite US President Donald Trump’s threats of withdrawing from it.
US Central Command Chief General Joseph Votel, speaking at a hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday, said the landmark deal had played an important role in addressing Iran’s nuclear program.
Votel added that if the accord, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA, fell apart, Washington would have to find another way to deal with what he called Tehran’s nuclear weapons program.
Votel’s idea agrees with that of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford, who have already maintained that staying in the JCPOA is in the national security interest of the US.
When a lawmaker…