The Iran nuke deal was working: Hakeem Jeffries was right and Donald Trump was wrong to withdraw five years ago today

In the summer of 2015, a great national debate about Iran diplomacy was underway. As part of that debate, I traveled to Brooklyn to speak on a town hall panel convened by Rep. Hakeem Jeffries about the pending Iran nuclear deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

That event opened my eyes to the depths of Jeffries’s constituents’ concerns about both the Iranian regime and the deal. They spoke of their justifiable fears about Iran’s behavior, its use of terror across the Middle East and threats to Israel, and how it was on the verge of obtaining nuclear weapons capability.

It was because of those fears that Jeffries led, correctly backing the Obama administration’s Iran nuclear deal to verifiably prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.

By supporting the deal, Jeffries guaranteed that Iran would be no less than 12 months away from nuclear breakout and that there would be intrusive international inspections to verify this Iranian commitment. In one fell swoop, Jeffries took a courageous stand for diplomacy over nuclear proliferation while addressing his constituents’ concerns.

Yet five years ago today, May 8, 2018, former President Donald Trump unilaterally broke the deal, leading us to where we are now: Iran a mere 12 days from nuclear breakout and the inspections regime in tatters. Trump unleashed Iran’s nuclear program while the regime’s brutal repression at home and terror abroad has only increased.

On this fifth anniversary of Trump’s disastrous decision to shift to “maximum pressure,” we have an opportunity to learn from his administration’s strategic missteps.

Fortunately, President Biden has been working to prevent a nuclear-capable Iran through diplomacy, but the trust lost in America’s word due to Trump’s debacle has made it incredibly difficult. And now, with the 2024 election campaign underway, Republicans are loath to give Biden any policy wins and diplomacy with Iran has once again become a partisan flashpoint, undermining our best shot at preventing a nuclear-capable Iran.

That’s where Congress comes in and where Jeffries can play an even more important role than before. Now, as the House Democratic leader, he can protect Biden’s diplomacy in the face of dangerous Republican attacks that aim to score political points, not policy wins.

For example, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was just in Israel and undoubtedly heard an earful of concerns from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about Iran’s nuclear advances, including Netanyahu’s relentless, counterproductive opposition to American diplomacy. McCarthy, sensing political opportunity, publicly dangled the idea of inviting Netanyahu to speak to Congress if Biden doesn’t invite him for a state visit. The last time Republicans did this, in 2015 to oppose the JCPOA, Netanyahu coordinated a visit to Congress with then-Republican Speaker John Boehner behind the back of President Obama, undercutting both Democrats and diplomacy to the partisan joy of Republicans.

Jeffries, who was also just in Israel, shouldn’t let this go and should instead continue to show his strong support for Israeli and American security by promoting the most effective policy tool we have to stop a nuclear-capable Iran: American diplomacy.

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Not only is this sound policy; it’s sound politics.

After all, Iran diplomacy has widespread Democratic support and broad support from the American electorate — including a supermajority of American Jewish voters. These voters don’t want a nuclear-capable Iran and they don’t want partisan politics to block American efforts to get a deal. But Republican politicization of Iran is doing just that.

So now is the time for Jeffries to lead Democrats against Republican efforts to turn Israel into a partisan wedge issue by standing up for diplomacy, just as Speaker Emeritus Nancy Pelosi did in 2015. He can do this by getting Congress to keep the political space open for Biden’s diplomacy by preventing problematic legislation that makes negotiations even more difficult and pushes Iran to take actions that make their nuclear program more dangerous.

For example, lawmakers have just introduced a bill to permanently extend the Iran Sanctions Act (ISA) of 1996, an unnecessary and incendiary attempt to strip away the flexibility that the president needs to effectively negotiate. It’s clear that the president will get no help from Republicans on Iran, no matter how unwise and counterproductive their policy is.

So as tensions between Iran and the U.S. rise each week, it’s time for congressional Democrats to do the blocking and tackling that Biden needs. Fortunately, Democrats have the ability to redirect these partisan Republican attempts to undermine our national security for political purposes.

What we need most now are prominent leaders like Jeffries to again lead the charge.

Rubin is a former Obama administration deputy assistant secretary of state for legislative affairs and the former executive director of the American Jewish Congress.