On Sunday in Geneva, Iran agreed with the U.S. and five other world powers to freeze or reverse much of the progress that the country has made at its key nuclear facilities, including capping or eliminating stockpiles of uranium, not adding new centrifuges, and daily monitoring by international inspectors. In exchange, Iran will experience a modest lessening of international sanctions.

President Obama and others have called the agreement historic, and say it’s a precursor to a wider agreement in six months. Not everybody is thrilled. Those who aren’t include Israel and some Republican hawks, which in this case would include Republican Senate candidate Dan Sullivan, who thinks that the deal is too soft.

Read the Washington Post’s analysis of the deal here.

On Sunday, Sullivan, who had worked at the State Department when sanctions were enacted, sent a release criticizing the deal, which he said had “dubious merit.”

Following Sullivan’s release, Begich sent out a release, which seemed to take a tough stand on Iran without criticizing the deal. “The threat to their neighbors and the entire world of an Iran with nuclear weapons is far too great to use a carrot instead of stick diplomatic approach,” he said.

I reached out to the other main Republican candidates, Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell and Joe Miller, about whether or not they had a response. Neither did by the time of this writing.

Read both statements in full below:

Dan Sullivan:

Chasing deals with the world’s biggest terrorist regime is not the way to enhance Alaska’s or America’s national security. I am proud of my service under former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as a senior U.S. official who helped lead the charge in pressuring Iran with economic and financial sanctions.

Instead of once again rubber stamping this latest Obama Administration initiative of dubious merit, I hope that Senator Begich will work to actually understand the ramifications of this deal for Alaska’s and America’s national security as well as for our allies in the Middle East, and ask hard questions of his fellow Democrats in Washington DC, like Secretary of State Kerry.

We can’t afford another series of broken promises to Alaskans, especially when we’re dealing with a terrorist regime that wants to acquire nuclear weapons.

U. S. Sen. Mark Begich:

Iran is one of the most unpredictable and dangerous countries in the world, so any agreement with their unreliable government must come with strong provisions for verification. I don’t support making any concessions, such as easing sanctions or taking the military option off the table, until they prove to the international community they can be trusted. The threat to their neighbors and the entire world of an Iran with nuclear weapons is far too great to use a carrot instead of stick diplomatic approach.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com