GOP Senator: ‘We’ve Let Them Out of the Trap’

Color Georgia’s Saxby Chambliss skeptical of the deal world powers, including the United States, struck with Iran early Sunday morning.

“Now is just not the time to ease sanctions, when they are working,” the Republican senator told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on Sunday. “We’ve got all the leverage in the negotiations when they are working and we’ve let them out of the trap.”

Chambliss predicted that the Senate would push back on the administration’s latest diplomatic effort by working to ratchet the sanctions regime back up. “I think you’re going to see a strong movement in the United States Senate to move ahead to tighten sanctions,” he said. “Right now the sanctions are working, they’re doing exactly what they’re designed to do: The economy of Iran is heading south, unemployment is skyrocketing.”

President Obama spoke with a group of senators at the White House last week to urge them against passing a new round of sanctions on Iran during the White House’s negotiations with the regime. The new deal provides Iran approximately $7 billion in sanctions relief, the majority from oil revenue that until now has been frozen in foreign banks.