‘Not our role’: Lawmakers cautious over Middle East peace, not ready for regime change
Lawmakers are anxious that the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Iran may not hold, but many are not ready to call for regime change in the Islamic Republic.
President Donald Trump
on Monday announced that Israel and Iran had agreed to a truce, but as the evening carried into the wee hours of Tuesday morning, whether that peace would last came into question.
On Capitol Hill, in the immediate wake of the ceasefire announcement, lawmakers were already looking at the deal skeptically but had confidence that the president’s negotiating power would ensure the fragile truce was not shattered.
“I remain hopeful,” Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., told Fox News Digital. “I trust the president. He’s been right on everything, and he’s the only president that’s been able to bring Iran and Israel to the table in this manner. So I’m going to hope and pray that this works, and if it doesn’t, then we know Trump will act decisively.”
Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., told Fox News Digital that it was the groundwork Trump laid in his first term with the Abraham Accords and his recent visit to Saudi Arabia that could help solidify a lasting ceasefire between the two sides.
“All you can do is just trust that because of the events that have happened, I mean, Iran … their conventional weapons have been decimated, their platforms have been decimated,” he said. “Their nuclear program has been obliterated. So they’re at the table because of that.”
Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., told Fox News Digital that Iran has “typically never done what they said they would do.”
However, he believed that with the pressure from both the U.S. and Israel, and because Trump was willing to use force — which he described as the president showing he “means business” — things could be different.
Fox News Digital’s Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report.