As President Donald Trump and Iran go back and forth on peace offers that would end hostilities in the Middle East but sidestep the question of the country’s nuclear program, Republicans in Congress are struggling to define what they would need to see in a deal to call the Iran war a success.
But some Republicans have been clear about this much: The U.S. has to have control of Iran’s uranium before Trump can declare “Mission Accomplished.”
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., said the No. 1 priority is for Iran not to have or seek a nuclear weapon. He acknowledged that the Strait of Hormuz and “other issues” are part of negotiations, but said it all ultimately comes back to nuclear weapons.
“They chant ‘death to America,’ they slaughtered over 30,000 of their own people, so clearly they cannot be trusted with a nuclear weapon,” Scalise said, “because they’ll use it against us and our allies.”
It was a similar story with a number of other Republicans.
Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs committee, told MS NOW that a “verification that the nuclear material is truly out” is the only way to declare success.
“It’ll be a matter of when and not if,” Smith said, questioning how the U.S. could claim victory without obtaining Iran’s uranium.
Vice Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said the uranium “has to leave” Iran, though he offered some options other than the United States simply taking the nuclear material.
“The United States doesn’t have to leave with it,” Issa said. “Russia could leave with it. We have previously exported fissile material, not to us, but to others, including Russia, in settlements in the past.”
Still, Issa was clear that Iran couldn’t keep “this highly enriched uranium.”
President Trump himself has made this point many times. “There will be no enrichment of Uranium, and the United States will, working with Iran, dig up and remove all of the deeply buried (B-2 Bombers) Nuclear ‘Dust,’” he posted on Truth Social in early April.
But the American public isn’t as convinced. In a recent YouGov poll, only 24% said the U.S. should make a deal on enriched uranium, with most Americans — 70% — saying the U.S. should end the war as quickly as possible.
As Trump weighs peace offerings from Iran, Republicans are laying out their bare bones needs to declare victory.
Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Mich., saw enriched uranium and the opening of the Strait of Hormuz as a “must do.”
Rep. Max Miller, R-Ohio, also saw the opening of the Strait of Hormuz as a necessary condition of success. “I believe that the Strait of Hormuz needs to be open, and I believe that a deal can be worked out with Iran,” he said.
Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fl., went straight to the demolition of Iran’s nuclear capabilities, but saw the opening of the Strait as an inevitability in the long run. “The truth is, the Iranians need the Strait, the Chinese need the Strait open, Europeans need the Strait open, so I think that’s just more a matter of time,” Donalds said.
And Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., pointed towards regime change as the “ultimate victory.”
‘The regime hates us,” Bacon said. “I believe if you leave them in place — and we are better to take out the nuclear fuel, their Air Force is crippled, the Navy is crippled — you can count on the Russians and Chinese to come in shortly thereafter to help rebuild Iran, which means there’ll be a threat again in five years.”
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Conservative Rep. Keith Self, R-Texas, initially agreed on the point of confiscating the uranium, telling MS NOW that the United States obtaining the nuclear materials is “key.”
“And then the Iranian people are going to have to step up to change the regime,” Self said, though he also tried to defer to Trump on declaring success.
“I’m in the Congress,” Self said. “The president runs the executive branch, and that will be up to him. He prosecutes the war as the executive branch.”
Other Republicans also showed deference to Trump.
Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., suggested the U.S. had already been successful in Iran.
“Anything that we do beyond what’s already been done is just a bonus, for sure,” he said.
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast, R-Fla., also claimed the U.S. had already had “tremendous success” in Iran, though he suggested that, in his mind, the U.S. couldn’t leave until the Strait of Hormuz was open.
“They don’t have an exact capability to hold it, but they have an ability to threaten shipping companies that have insurance, that are going to decide whether they want to go through or not go through,” Mast said.
But as much as Republicans seem fixated on seizing the uranium supply and making sure the Strait of Hormuz is open, the Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee — Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala. — suggested neither objective was necessary to claim victory.
“Not for me. That is not necessary,” Rogers said.
The chairman struggled to outline what success would look like, pointing to “the four goals that the president set out.”
Asked what those goals are, Rogers only pointed to “degrading their military.”
“That’s the main thing — is degrading their military, where they can’t be a threat to any of our allies or our troops in the region,” he said.
Syedah Asghar
Syedah Asghar covers Congress for MS NOW.
Nora McKee is the D.C. coordinator for MS NOW.