President Barack Obama should have been willing to work with Congress long before the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee this week unanimously approved legislation giving Congress the right to reject any nuclear agreement with Iran, Oklahoma Rep. Steve Russell said Wednesday on "America’s Forum" on
Newsmax TV.
"We've reached a crisis point where still many things are very dangerous and we have a situation where the White House should've been involving Congress all along," said Russell, a member of the House Armed Services Committee.
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A nuclear deal with Iran is not worth making, he said, noting that "even when we had clearly drawn lines between communism and the West, we all wanted to avoid Armageddon."
"We have a problem a problem with Iran in that they want Armageddon," he said. "When you read the ayatollah's statements and the Supreme Council, they believe that creating enough mayhem and destruction in the world will usher the 12th imam and there'll be peace.
"How do you deal with that? You don't deal with it by sitting down at a coffee shop over a latte thinking that you can work it out."
He characterized as a "dangerous prospect" the lifting of sanctions before Iran shows "good behavior."
If sanctions are lifted before, "hundreds of billions of dollars" will be released from Western and South African banks and "go immediately into their coffers," Russell said, adding that "they will more than likely transfer those into private accounts and now they'll have half a trillion dollars to promote this kind of mayhem around the world.
"We already see ... the instability that they're responsible for in the Middle East, which doesn't even appear to be part of the negotiation."
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