Obama says U.S. may be ‘worse off’ now than before Iran war
The former president told NBC’s “TODAY” show he questioned the rationale for President Donald Trump’s war on Iran.
“We’ve now fought a war, spent billions and billions of dollars, you know, put enormous strain on our military. A lot of people have died. And it feels like we’re back where we were before we started the war, except maybe a little bit worse off,” Obama said in an interview with “TODAY” co-host Craig Melvin that aired Friday.
“I am very happy to see a ceasefire. And I’m hopeful that it holds,” said Obama, who questioned the rationale for the war on Iran.
The former president noted that under the Iran nuclear deal negotiated during his administration, “Iran had agreed not to develop nuclear weapons.”
“This administration, or a prior version of this administration, pulled out of it, which caused then Iran to develop more nuclear capacity,” Obama said.
Trump withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal in 2018, during his first term. That agreement laid out detailed steps that Tehran should take over more than 25 years with the aim of restricting Iran from obtaining or developing a nuclear weapon. The current MOU does not fully address the fate of the country’s nuclear program.