Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ) said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the U.S. military strikes on Iran “could accelerate” their nuclear weapons program.
Kelly said, “What I think should have happened here right up front is him coming to Congress and asking for authorization to do this. That’s the constitutional approach to this. He could have talked to us about what the goal is and what the plan is ahead of time, and we could have had a discussion about it.”
He added, “My big fear right now is that they take this entire program underground. We don’t know, not physically underground, but under the radar, and we don’t know what they’re going to do here in the future. They might try to race to the development of a nuclear weapon. Where we try to stop it, there’s a possibility that this could accelerate it.”
Host Kristen Welker asked, “Let me ask you this question then, because of course, you heard President Trump’s remarks overnight urging Iran to get back to the negotiating table. Iran says it’s poised for a counterattack. Do you think that there is any hope for diplomacy at this point, or is that dead?”
Kelly said, “No, I think there’s always hope that we can get back to the negotiating table. That’s what we should have done. We should have exhausted all options. We could have spent another month at this. There was no clear, present, immediate danger to us and our troops, and even to Israel with regard to the nuclear capability. The Israelis were doing an incredible job, conventionally going after targets and going after the missile defense system.”
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