[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 166 (Wednesday, November 20, 2013)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1717]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   THE IRANIANS ARE FEELING THE PINCH

                                 ______
                                 

                              HON. TED POE

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, November 20, 2013

  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, as the old Israeli saying goes, ``What 
you don't see with your eyes, don't invent with your mouth.''
  Iran and six world powers, including the United States, are meeting 
in Geneva to negotiate over Iran's nuclear weapons program. The U.S. 
must be clear and unequivocal: There will be no reductions in sanctions 
without verified steps to show that Tehran is abandoning, not just 
freezing, its nuclear weapons program.
  Sanctions are what have brought Iran to the table to talk in the 
first place. In 2012, the Islamic Republic's net exports of petroleum 
dropped to their lowest level since 1990. Its GDP has dropped for the 
first time in 20 years. The Iranian Central Bank acknowledged an annual 
inflation rate of 45 percent in late July 2013; many economists believe 
it is more likely in the 50-70 percent range.
  In short, the Iranians are feeling the pinch. The sanctions are 
working.
  But getting the Iranians to the negotiating table is not good enough.
  If we reduce sanctions now, we give up one of our main sources of 
leverage for the negotiations. Why stop what is working before we even 
start talking? Tehran wants to ease the sanctions to a tolerable enough 
level so that it can continue developing nuclear weapons without pain 
to its economy.
  If we ease sanctions now, Iran will doubt our resolve, continue to 
run out the clock, and develop nuclear weapons knowing that there will 
be no serious consequences.
  If the U.S. caves in at this critical time, other countries around 
the world will likely follow its lead and ease their own sanctions. In 
short, we would be right back to where we were in 2004: Iran marching 
toward a dangerous nuclear weapons program with no significant 
sanctions in place. Only this time, it would be much worse. Tehran has 
continually blocked international inspectors from seeing its nuclear 
facilities because it has something to hide.
  Iran is closer than ever before to crossing the threshold and 
developing a nuclear weapon. Iran's stockpile of medium-enriched 
uranium has nearly doubled in a year, and its number of centrifuges has 
expanded from 12,000 in 2012 to 19,000 today.
  Iran could produce enough weapons-grade uranium to build a nuclear 
bomb in as little as a month, a recent report by the Institute for 
Science and International Security states. It goes on to say that if 
Iran built a covert enrichment plant with the specific purpose of 
enriching uranium as quickly as possible, with current Iranian 
technology it could produce enough material for a nuclear bomb in a 
week. Backing off from sanctions now should not be an option. We simply 
do not have time.
  If we want diplomacy to succeed, we shouldn't be talking about 
reducing sanctions but rather ratcheting them up. My colleagues and I 
in the House of Representatives passed an additional sanctions bill in 
July that would inflict even more pain on the Iranian regime. These new 
sanctions would go after more sectors of the Iranian economy and more 
individuals in the Iranian government. The U.S. Senate should ignore 
the president's objections and pass these sanctions immediately. If 
peace is to carry the day, we cannot start backing down now.
  Nobody wants war with Iran. We should not give up the one peaceful 
tool that has finally impacted the Iranian regime enough to change its 
cost-benefit analysis. It would be foolish and dangerous to reduce 
sanctions without Iran proving that it is dismantling its nuclear 
weapons program. And that's just the way it is.

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