Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) on Monday reiterated his past position that any agreement with Iran must be approved by Congress.
In a post on social media, Graham also outlined what such an agreement must include.
“As I have said previously, any agreement reached between the United States and Iran must come before Congress for approval, as was the case for the JCPOA under President Obama," he wrote.
“If we can end the conflict through diplomatic means that achieve our national security objectives, that would be a major accomplishment," added Graham.
He then reiterated President Donald Trump’s position on Iran: “No enrichment, American control of the approximately 900 pounds of highly enriched uranium, the opening of the Strait of Hormuz without interference from Iran, Iran must abandon its long-range ballistic missile program and any effort to develop a nuclear weapon, Iran must end its support for all terrorists proxies in the region."
Graham expressed doubt that Iran would agree to any of these conditions, writing, “But to say that I am skeptical that Iran will actually agree to the things necessary to make the deal substantially different than the JCPOA or enter into a deal that will withstand the test of time is an understatement. Time will tell."
In an earlier post on Monday, Graham appeared to call for a limited military strike against Iran to "reset" the conflict between the US and the Islamic Republic in response to Iran's continued intransigence and threats to global shipping.
"I have every confidence that President Trump fully understands the situation with Iran and will not continue to tolerate a refusal to negotiate in good faith along with Iran’s defiant aggression in the Strait of Hormuz and throughout the region," Graham wrote.
"It is abundantly clear to me that Iran has been very weakened militarily and economically. But at the same time, they have become more emboldened and aggressive," he said. "A short but forceful response now would reset the conflict in all the right ways."
Graham’s posts came as Trump revealed in a post on Truth Social that the US was planning on striking Iran on Tuesday, but postponed the attack because of what he referred to as "serious negotiations" were being held.
Speaking to reporters later on Tuesday, Trump said, “We were getting ready to do a very major attack tomorrow. I've put it off for a little while, hopefully, maybe forever, but possibly for a little while, because we've had very big discussions with Iran, and we'll see what they amount to."
Trump added, “I was asked by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, and some others if we could put it off for two or three days, a short period of time, because they think that they are getting very close to making a deal. And if we can do that, where there's no nuclear weapon going into the hands of Iran, I think, and if they're satisfied, we will be probably satisfied also."
He stressed that the US informed Israel of the decision to hold off on the attack as well as “other people in the Middle East that have been involved with us."
“It's a very positive development, but we'll see whether or not it amounts to anything. We've had periods of time where we thought [we were] pretty much getting close to making a deal, and it didn't work out, but this is a little bit different," said Trump, who added that the strike he halted would have been “very big and not something I wanted to do, but we have no choice because we cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon."