[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 21 (Wednesday, February 8, 2012)]
[House]
[Page H593]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
IRAN'S NUCLEAR AMBITIONS
(Mr. DEUTCH asked and was given permission to address the House for 1
minute.)
Mr. DEUTCH. Madam Speaker, even as we stand here today, the
centrifuges continue to spin in Iran, and their illicit nuclear weapons
program forges ahead.
Yet, they are more isolated today than they have ever been. I commend
President Obama for his Executive order freezing the assets of the
Central Bank of Iran and making it impossible to do business both with
Iran and with the United States. I thank our Asian allies for reducing
purchases of crude oil and slashing trade with Iran, and I commend our
European allies, as well, for banning the import of Iranian crude. The
Iranian economy is in shambles. As a result of these international
efforts, its currency is plummeting and inflation is skyrocketing.
I urge my colleagues, our friends across the way in the Senate, to
pass tighter sanctions still to tighten the economic noose on the
ayatollahs and to force them to give up their illicit nuclear
ambitions. We must stand with the Iranian people even as their human
rights are crushed by the Revolutionary Guard. In their quest for
democracy, we stand with them. Our efforts are paying off, Madam
Speaker, we cannot let up.
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