Incoming President Donald Trump is under pressure from elements within the Republican Partyto resume the “maximum pressure” policy towards Iran that he imposed after taking the U.S. out of the 2015 nuclear deal in 2018 when he takes office again in January and even consider military strikes on Iran’s nuclear program. Members of Congress caution that such action depends on how Iran’s nuclear weapons production develops and how Tehran acts in the Middle East, where it has suffered repeated blows to its proxies and allies in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria, reported The Hill yesterday. “These guys hate us. They hate Israel, and we’ve lost deterrence,” Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE), a key member of the House Armed Services Committee, claimed, citing the two Iranian attacks on Israel. “Let’s try to restrict all their energy exports.”
Bacon also said he was open to strikes on Iranian nuclear sites. “If Iran does stuff that they’ve been doing, like doing these missile attacks, or other kinds of attacks on Americans, we should use that opportunity to take out their nuclear force,” he said. “If Iran opens the door by being aggressive with us on something, that should be our response.”
