SEN MENENDEZ URGES BIDEN AND EUROPE TO ABANDON WEAK APPROACH TO NUCLEAR TALKS
As Iran continues to rapidly escalate its nuclear program, which has brought it to the brink of having enough material for a nuclear weapon, The Democratic Head the Foreign Relations Committee of the United States Senate Urges Return to Maximum Pressure - Reimposition of Harsh Sanctions to Regain Leverage. He also calls the Biden Administration to Enforce Existing Sanctions on Iran Sales of Oil to China.
Message to the brutal murderous theocracy in Tehran, the appeasers in Europe and their corrupt, souless complicitors is clear:
The US Congress and the American people - on a bipartisan basis - demand maximum pressure on the Iranian regime to truly prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons and to deter its malign and unconscionable activities -
Any capitulations of the Biden Administration are only temporary and do not reflect the will of the American people or our values which transcend partisan politics.
The Biden Administration cannot and must guarantee the longevity or permanence which the Iranian regime demands. We are a Constitutional republic and we do not bow down to murderous tyrannies.
The highlights of Senator Menendez's Remarks.......
“Madam President, for nearly 30 years, first as a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and to this day as Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, I have had the privilege of engaging in the most pressing foreign policy and national security issues facing our nation.
While we are all rightly focused on the crisis unfolding around Ukraine, we must not lose sight of how dangerously close Iran is to becoming a nuclear-armed state, for we know that a nuclear-armed Iran would pose an unacceptable threat to U.S. national security interests, to our allies in Europe and to overall stability in the Middle East.
As someone who has followed Iran's nuclear ambition for the better part of three decades, I am here today to raise concerns about the current round of negotiations over the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, and Iran’s dangerously and rapidly escalating nuclear program that has put it on the brink of having enough material for a nuclear weapon.
Three to four weeks. A month or less.
That’s how long most analysts have concluded it would take Iran to produce enough fissile material for a nuclear bomb, if they choose to do so.
That is not a timeline we can accept.
That is why I’m calling on the Biden administration and our international partners to exert more pressure on Iran to counter its nuclear program, its missile program, and its dangerous behavior around the Middle East, including attacks on American personnel and assets.
Before I continue, let me set the record straight.
While some have tried to paint me as belligerent to diplomacy – or worse – I have always believed that multilateral, diplomatic negotiations from a position of strength are the best way to address Iran’s nuclear program.
And I have always advocated for a comprehensive diplomatic agreement that is long lasting, fully verifiable, and with an enforceable snapback system of sanctions should Iran breach any terms.
It was for very specific reasons that I opposed the JCPOA back in 2015, as well as an underlying concern that I just could not shake: a sense that the deal itself was a best-case scenario hinging on good faith actors and overly-optimistic outcomes without enough consideration for the worst-case scenarios that might arise from the behavior of bad actors.
Today, many of the concerns I expressed about the JCPOA back in August of 2015 are coming back to haunt us in the year 2022.
First and foremost, my overarching concern with the JCPOA was that it did not require the complete dismantlement of Iran’s nuclear infrastructure.
Instead, it mothballed that infrastructure for 10 years, making it all too easy for Iran to resume its illicit nuclear program at a moment of its choosing.
The deal did not require Iran to destroy or fully decommission a single uranium enrichment centrifuge.
In fact, over half of Iran’s operating centrifuges at the time were able to continue spinning at its Natanz facility.
The remainder – more than 5,000 operational centrifuges and nearly 10,000 not yet operational – were to be merely disconnected. Instead of being completely removed, they were transferred to another hall at Natanz where they could be quickly reinstalled to enrich uranium, which is exactly what we have seen happen over the past year.