Wendy Sherman: If President Trump Pulls out of the Iran Deal We Will Lose Credibility

EXCERPT:

VELSHI: "So if the president were not just trying to appeal to his base with this talk there might be an argument to be made, and it might go like this -- Rex Tillerson tried to make it the other day. He said while Iran may be sticking to the terms of the deal there is an underlying expectation that in exchange for this favorable treatment, the removal of sanctions, we would expect Iran to medal less in Syria, in Yemen, in -- in, with Hezbollah, things like that. And -- and that’s -- that's -- that's an argument that the president and others make. Is that valid?"
SHERMAN: "I think he will make that argument when he non-certifies. I think he'll say this is not in our national security interests and this isn't in the keeping of the spirit of the deal and the preamble talks about how we all should work for peace and security in the world, which of course we should. But this is preambular language which has no force and effect. It's really the kind of hortatory language that starts most of these agreements. I think we were very clear, this deal was only about the threat of nuclear weapons to the world and only dealt with that issue. Because if Iran had nuclear weapons it would project even more power into the Middle East and it would deter our actions with our allies. I am no apologist for Iran whatsoever. They are doing very bad things in the Middle East. We need to counter that with sanctions that we currently have on them, for their acts of terrorism, for arms exchanges, for missile launches. We ought to enforce that, we ought to enforce the deal vigorously, but we ought not to isolate ourselves. And I think although I don’t agree with President Rouhani at all about what he is doing with the leadership of his country and what they are doing in the Middle East, it is a fact that if we pull out of the agreement, if President Trump pulls out of the agreement we will lose credibility, whether it is a NAFTA negotiation, a climate negotiation, or a negotiation with North Korea."
VELSHI: "And that's possibly the most --"
SHERMAN: "The United States will have less credibility."