After much deliberation, the Progressive Party has voted to support the Iran Nuclear Agreement (INA) because it lifts sanctions and is the result of international stakeholder diplomacy. This path to peace outweighs our reservation of supporting actions that promote the nuclear power industry.

We support the peaceful diplomatic resolution of international conflict. We are against any future wars and we are against the current sanctions which are punishing the people of Iran.

We urge Senator Wyden to join Senator Merkley and vote in support of the Iranian nuclear agreement.

We condemn the neoconservative movement trying to derail the INA led by AIPAC and its astroturf group, Citizens for a Nuclear Free Iran, led by former congressional leaders like Joseph Lieberman.

We condemn the neoconservative American politicians who led us into the Iraq war, including Richard Cheney, Bill Kristol and George W. Bush, who now demand a belligerent foreign policy backed by the threat of war.

We are concerned this agreement leads to increasing Iran’s dependence on nuclear power and is a missed opportunity to transition to the use of renewable energy sources. Nuclear power is a terrible threat to our planet as exemplified by Fukishama, Chernobyl and Three Mile Island. The Iranian people would be better served moving away from nuclear power entirely and focusing on solar, wind and other alternative forms of power generation.

We are saddened this agreement promotes the development of Iran’s civilian nuclear power industry. The INA allows Iran to build a “civilian” nuclear power industry, of unlimited size, creating a path for Iran to advance toward the production of weapons grade material by means of uranium enrichment and the reprocessing of spent reactor fuel.

American foreign policy should support agreements that follow the German model of no nuclear power and moving towards 50% energy from renewables.