Mark Kelly: Trump ‘stuck’ with Iran and wants to ‘get back to where he was before’ war started

Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) on Sunday said President Trump is “stuck” with handling the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran and is seeking a path to “get back to where” the U.S. was before the war began in February.

“The president got into this without a strategic goal, without a plan, without a timeline, without an exit strategy. He’s stuck,” Kelly told host Martha Raddatz on ABC News’s “This Week.”

Kelly called for “professionals” to handle negotiations with Iran instead of the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, adding that the U.S. cannot leave Iran with the “strength” to develop nuclear weapons. The Trump administration has said preventing Iran from developing and obtaining nuclear weapons has been its primary objective with the military campaign.

“I think what the president would love to do is get back to where he was before he started this thing,” the Arizona Democrat said. “The Iranians weren’t racing to get a nuclear weapon. The straits were open, and we didn’t have over 20 dead service members and 800 injured. This thing has been a disaster, and it’s been a mistake and it’s because of the failed leadership of the president.”

Raddatz asked about the damage to buildings in U.S. bases in several Gulf countries, which Kelly said was “significant.” Combined with other expenses going toward the military campaign, the senator said the total cost of the war could be an “excess of $40 billion at this point with no end in sight because the president doesn’t know what to do.”

An American Enterprise Institute report released in April showed that about 70 structures at 11 U.S. military bases in the Middle East have sustained $5 billion in damage. The damage has stirred some debate about the future of the U.S. military presence in the Middle East.

Trump on Saturday publicly rejected Iran’s seven-day proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and enter a ceasefire. He accused the regime of “losing so badly” and that the U.S. has “total control of the Hormuz Strait” with “massive amounts of oil” departing the vital waterway.

Roughly 20 percent of the world’s oil is exported out of the strait. Iran effectively shut it down following the outbreak of the conflict, blasting gas prices to new records. The national average for gas in the U.S. hit $4.48 on Sunday, with last year’s average down at $3.14, according to AAA.

Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, disputed Trump’s rejection of the peace proposal to NBC News’s Kristen Welker on “Meet the Press” on Sunday.

“If they reject it with no reason, this is their fault,” Araghchi said of U.S. negotiators. “And I have to say that although we heard from President Trump that he’s rejecting this deal, we are still waiting for an official response through the mediators.”