Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, called Friday for the US to resume strikes on Iran to “finish what we started” — as Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman said it was unclear whether a deal was possible even “over weeks or months.”
“We are at a moment that will define President Trump’s legacy,” Wicker said in a statement. “His instincts have been to finish the job he started in Iran, but he is being ill-advised to pursue a deal that would not be worth the paper it is written on.”
The 74-year-old further criticized current diplomatic efforts to secure a deal with Iran — as both Pakistani and Qatari officials engaged in a now-or-never push to get Iran to sign an agreement with the US to restart talks.
“Our commander-in-chief needs to allow America’s skilled armed forces to finish the destruction of Iran’s conventional military capabilities and reopen the strait,” Wicker said in a statement.
“… Further pursuit of an agreement with Iran’s Islamist regime risks a perception of weakness,” he added.
Such an agreement is not even close to coming to fruition as the gaps between Washington and Tehran remain “deep and numerous,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei told the IRNA state media outlet on Friday.
“We cannot say that we will definitely reach a conclusion within a few weeks or months with a few visits or negotiations,” he said. “Diplomacy takes time and the parties use every opportunity to convey their views.”
The Trump administration has repeatedly said it will not begin a second round of talks with Iran until the Islamic Republic is willing to give up its nuclear ambitions.
For more than a month, Tehran has resisted making any concessions to the US over its atomic program, releasing its buried enriched uranium or reopening the Strait of Hormuz to free navigation.
Meanwhile, Trump has repeatedly said he would launch strikes as soon as this weekend if the Iranians are still unable to come to an agreement with the US.
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Also on Friday, the president announced he’d cancelled plans to leave Washington this weekend to attend his eldest son Don Jr.’s wedding, after saying a day before that it would be difficult to go because of the Iran issue.
At least some US troops’ holiday weekend leave has been canceled as a precaution, a source familiar with military planning told The Post.
The service branches did not respond to requests for comment.
