Republican senators are holding back from embracing President Trump’s announced peace deal with Iran, telling reporters that they need more details about the agreement and whether it would stop Iran’s nuclear program before providing judgment.
Trump’s Republican allies on Capitol Hill have said since the United States and Israel launched strikes in February that Iran cannot be allowed to acquire a nuclear weapon, but they say they can’t assess whether the new memorandum of understanding (MOU) will achieve that objective because they have yet to review it.
“The MOU, I want to see it myself. The way Iran describes it is awful. The way we describe it makes sense to me. Let’s look at it and see what it actually is,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S. C.), who was a leading proponent of the military strikes against Iran and urged Trump last month to resume strikes to “finish the job,” if necessary.
While Trump on Monday said the deal would open the door to “a lot of great things in the Middle East right now,” Graham on Monday said, “I don’t where Iran’s at.”
He added that it may take “a couple of months” to determine whether Iran will agree to enforcement provisions to ensure it can’t cheat by secretly producing the highly enriched uranium to make a nuclear weapon.
Graham said while U. S. strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities in 2025 and earlier this year have greatly weakened Iran’s military, the nuclear threat still exists.
“Their nuclear ambitions still exist. How do you rein it in?” he said.
Senate Armed Service Committee Chairman Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), who last month criticized the emerging deal, on Monday declined to comment.
“I’m withholding comment,” he said.
Wicker slammed the emerging deal last month when details of the framework began to leak to the press.
“The rumored 60-day ceasefire — with the belief that Iran will ever engage in good faith — would be a disaster,” Wicker wrote on X, the social media platform, on May 23.
Trump and Vice President JD Vance electronically signed the memorandum of understanding with Iran on Sunday but the deal’s full text has remained secret and the two sides have characterized it differently.
Vance is expected to travel to Geneva, Switzerland for a formal signing on Sunday. The deal has not been released publicly.
The deal will stop the military attacks and open the critical Strait of Hormuz, but it appears to leave big questions about the future of Iran’s nuclear program and sanctions relief for Iran open for further negotiation over the next 60 days.
Republicans on Capitol Hill criticized President Obama in 2015 when his administration negotiated a deal with Iran to ease sanctions in return for Iran limiting its uranium enrichment program.
Now Republican senators are saying they could accept sanctions relief for Iran if there are clear enforcement mechanisms negotiated to ensure that Iran never develops a nuclear weapon. But GOP lawmakers remain in the dark about what constraints if any Iran would accept and whether it would give up its enriched uranium stockpile, which includes 970 pounds of near-weapons grade material.
“I don’t know enough about it to say” whether it’s a good deal, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S. D.) told reporters on Monday.
Thune said he hasn’t been briefed and expressed hope that senators would learn more about the details before U. S. and Iranian officials sign it in person in Geneva.
The GOP leader warned that whether Senate Republicans embrace the deal will depend on whether it’s seen as enforceable, considering strong skepticism among colleagues over whether Iran can be trusted to comply with its terms.
“My understanding of what it entails — again, not having seen anything — I think the issues are going to be compliance and, ‘How you’re going to enforce that and what are the financial incentives the Iranians are going to have from our country?’” Thune said.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), a senior member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, who has warned against a nuclear-armed Iran, declined to give a thumbs up or thumbs down to the peace framework.
“We need to see the MOU,” he said, a position shared by many of his Republican colleagues.
Democrats on Monday called on the Trump administration to brief lawmakers immediately about the “understanding” with Iran.
“There have been divergent statements from a variety of people in the administration. In these high-stakes negotiations, the devil is in the details but Trump hasn’t even released the text of his ‘understanding’ with Iran. The American people need to know exactly what’s in the deal,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N. Y.) said on the Senate floor.
There’s growing desire among Senate Republicans for Congress to vote on whatever final deal emerges from the negotiation over the next two months on sanctions relief and limiting Iran’s nuclear program.
Vance told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Monday that the memorandum with Iran is “about a page and a half” and described it as a “very general document.”
Several GOP senators, including Graham, a Trump ally, said they want to vote on the final agreement while others, including Sens. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) argued that a vote wouldn’t be necessary.
“Any nuclear deal with Iran has to be voted on,” Graham said. “There’s no way we will not review a deal.”
Sen. John Kennedy (R-Ky.) says he’s “hopeful” Trump has negotiated a strong deal but cautioned, “I want to read it myself.”
Kennedy said the strength of any deal will be determined by how the talks on nuclear enrichment and sanctions relief progress over the summer.
“The next 60 days or whatever the allotted time is to negotiate the final document is going to be very important,” he said. “It’s just very difficult if not impossible to trust the Iranian government. They lie.”
He added Congress should vote on the final product.
The Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015 requires that any nuclear agreement with Iran be submitted to Congress for review before sanctions are lifted.
Senators would have a chance to vote on a resolution of disapproval to strike down the deal but such a measure would need 60 votes to pass the upper chamber, which would make it difficult for Trump’s critics to scuttle any nuclear deal with Iran.
Several Trump allies questioned whether a vote would be necessary anytime soon and expressed relief over the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20 percent of the globe’s oil supplies travel to market.
“This is like a template for further negotiations. I don’t even know constitutionally if we have a role in that,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) told reporters.
Hawley said the war, which has driven up energy prices, is taking a toll on the economy in his home state.
“The Strait is going to reopen. Great. That will be lower gas prices, that will be lower fertilizer prices in Missouri,” he said.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who has consistently voted for a Democratic-sponsored resolution to direct Trump to withdraw U. S. troops from hostilities against Iran, praised the emerging deal.
“I’m in favor of trying to end the war and I think negotiations is the way it will end. I think it’s a good idea to get the Strait of Hormuz open as soon as possible. It appears to me the trade has been: We stop blockading them and they stop blockading us. So I think that’s a good idea,” he said.
Updated at 6:12 a.m. EDT
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