Possible deal on Iran divides US lawmakers largely along party line

U.S. lawmakers appearing on Sunday morning talk shows split sharply over a potential deal to end the Iran war, with Republicans mostly backing the publicly reported contours of an agreement being negotiated by President Donald Trump and Democrats dismissing it as accomplishing little.



Senator Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat and a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the reported outlines of a deal sounded like little more than "the pre-war status quo" with Iran. "I think this was a blunder," Van Hollen said on the "Fox News Sunday" program. "When you're digging a hole, you should stop digging, and that sounds like maybe what we're doing finally."



US Representative Mike Lawler, a New York Republican who sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, praised Trump's approach to talks with Iran. "I think on the whole what the administration has been able to do for the first time in 47 years is force the remnants of this regime into a negotiation, a real negotiation,".



And Senator Cory Booker, a New Jersey Democrat, said Trump was being "played as a fool" in negotiations. "He's got us in a situation that's worse than it was before, a more extreme regime," Booker added. "(The) Strait of Hormuz now is a leveraging point for them. This weak nation has put America in a stalemate.”