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Collins, Pingree React To Trump Imposing Sanctions On Iran

President Donald Trump has unilaterally imposed sanctions on Iran, ostensibly to get the Iranians to the table to renegotiate the 2015 nuclear agreement.

Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine questions whether the sanctions will work.

“It’s difficult to predict, but I would suggest that if we are doing unilateral sanctions, it would make them less likely to come back to the negotiating table,” she says.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree says the sanctions won’t work and the president was wrong to pull out of the agreement in the first place.

“In my mind there is no question that the president has made a huge mistake. It took a very long time to negotiate the agreement that we had. Other countries are still sticking to that agreement,” she says. “I think the president makes these decisions based on how he feels when he wakes up in the morning, instead of sound diplomatic advice. And I don’t think he knows where it is going to go and I certainly think it was a very bad decision on his part.”

Trump has announced the unilateral sanctions on the use of U.S. dollars by the Iranian government and in other areas, such as the sales of passenger jets. They also affect the sale of food and carpets by Iran to the U.S.

Collins says sanctions should be coordinated with other countries, and while she does not like parts of the 2015 agreement, she says the U.S. needs to work with other countries to get Iran to negotiate.

“I would much prefer that the President coordinate his foreign policy initiatives with our allies. Instead he often seems to take a lonely route and does not even inform our allies of what he is going to do,” she says.

Journalist Mal Leary spearheads Maine Public's news coverage of politics and government and is based at the State House.