Rubio insists proposed Trump deal with Iran is different from Obama’s

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday that any new nuclear deal with Iran would have to go far beyond the Obama-era JCPOA, arguing that agreement failed to stop Tehran from building up its enrichment capabilities.

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“It is not JCPOA,” Rubio told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “[That deal] would have expired this year, and it allowed them to keep all the enrichment equipment that they needed.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. — Secretary of State Marco Rubio testified that the Trump administration’s proposed Iran deal is different than the Obama-era JCOPA. AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana

Rubio noted that Iran has already enriched nearly 1,000 pounds of uranium to 60% purity — just a short technical step from weapons-grade levels.

Any future agreement, he said, would have to address both Iran’s enrichment infrastructure and its growing stockpile of highly enriched material.

“It would have to deal with that question,” Rubio went on, “and it would have to deal with the highly enriched uranium that they currently are in possession of.”