Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Tuesday that she supports the Iran nuclear deal announced Tuesday, calling it an important first step.
“I think we have to look at this seriously, evaluate it carefully, but I believe based on what I know now, this is an important step,” she told reporters on Capitol Hill. “There will be a number of issues that have to be addressed. I want to just mention, too, the first is enforcement. This agreement will have to be enforced vigorously, relentlessly.”
Clinton was on Capitol Hill to tout her economic plan to lawmakers. In meeting with House Democrats, Clinton told lawmakers she did supported the deal.
She told reporters later that the U.S. government should continue to fight terrorism backed by the country.
“This does put a lid on the nuclear program, but we still have a lot of concern about the bad behavior and the actions by Iran, which remains the largest state sponsor of terrorism,” Clinton said. “Having been part of building the coalition that brought us to the point of this agreement, I think we will have to immediately, upon completion of this agreement and its rigorous enforcement, look to see how we build a coalition to try to prevent and undermine Iran's bad behaviors in other arenas.”
Clinton said her former boss, President Barack Obama, called her late Monday night to tell her an agreement had been reached. She and other former secretaries of state will be briefed on the deal by the White House.
Anita Kumar: 202-383-6017, @anitakumar01