During a Wednesday night appearance on CNN’s The Source With Kaitlan Collins, Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) reluctantly accepted President Donald Trump’s recent comments that “it’s a little bit ​unfair” for Iran not to have missiles, saying, “They have to be able to defend themselves.”

Trump, who made the statement to reporters in France on Wednesday, added in a same-day press conference that missiles only “hurt a little location, but they don’t blow up the planet.”

Alongside CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, Marshall gave his two cents on the memorandum of agreement (MOU) signed late on Wednesday in Versailles between the U.S. and Iran.

“I don’t know what other alternatives we had except just to keep turning the other cheek, letting them kill more Americans in the future,” he said, expressing desire for this conflict not to turn into another “forever war.”

When asked by Collins if he’s okay with Iran having missiles, Marshall responded, “You know, I’m hesitating. I’d prefer that they not. I certainly don’t want them to have long-distance missiles. I don’t want them to have nuclear-armed missiles. I would prefer they didn’t, but I don’t think that’s the key issue here. I think that they have to be able to defend themselves, and I just kinda come back to the big picture here, which is the Middle East countries like this agreement.”

Collins then interrupted, “You think Iran needs to be able to defend itself?”

“I do,” responded Marshall. “Otherwise, we turn this into a forever war. You’re never gonna get them, short of boots on the ground, surrendering everything — an unconditional agreement, if you will. But again, what I’m getting at here is this agreement has the support of all — most of the countries in the Middle East, and I think that’s gonna give it more of a long-lasting relationship, a long-lasting success as well.”

Watch the full clip above via CNN.

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