[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 130 (Thursday, September 10, 2015)]
[House]
[Pages H5876-H5877]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from
Kentucky (Mr. Barr) for 5 minutes.
Mr. BARR. Mr. Speaker, last month, I traveled to Israel with more
than 35 of my colleagues to meet with key leaders in that country,
including Prime Minister Netanyahu, and learned firsthand what our
closest ally in the Middle East thinks about the proposed Iran nuclear
agreement, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action between
the P5+1 countries and Iran.
The consensus view from the Israelis across the political spectrum,
from the Prime Minister to the opposition leader in the Knesset, Isaac
Herzog, from the President of the State of Israel, Reuven Rivlin, to
the military leaders in the Israeli Defense Forces, they all agree that
the deal negotiated by Secretary Kerry and championed by President
Obama is a dangerous and historic mistake.
This confirms what we have learned in briefings and hearings in
Congress. This deal will not deliver the safety and security the
American people deserve. Instead, it will transform Iran from the
world's leading state sponsor of terrorism with an illicit nuclear
program into the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism awash in
billions of dollars in sanctions relief with an internationally
sanctioned nuclear program on an industrial scale.
This is not just a bad deal for Israel. This is not just a bad deal
for America. A nuclear Iran is a global threat to everyone everywhere.
Consider the counterparty to this deal. Since the seizure of the U.S.
Embassy and the taking of 52 American hostages during the 1979
revolution, the Islamic Republic of Iran has taken the long view on its
global ambitions of exporting its revolution, supporting terrorist
proxies like Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis, and Boko Haram.
The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and the leader of its elite
Quds Force, Qasem Soleimani, is responsible for the killing of over 500
U.S. soldiers in Iraq.
The Iranian regime has covered up and lied about its nuclear program
for decades, deceiving international inspectors, agreeing to intrusive
inspections, and then allowing those inspections to be implemented only
provisionally and selectively. Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah
Khamenei, regularly chants ``death to America'' and openly calls for
the annihilation of the Jewish people and the destruction of Israel.
In Jerusalem, we visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial museum.
There, we saw exhibits recounting the horrifying images of the
Holocaust. During our visit with Prime Minister
[[Page H5877]]
Netanyahu, he made a profound observation. He said they compare this to
the 1930s.
This is not like the 1930s. In the 1930s, the Nazis concealed their
intentions for the Jewish people in the Holocaust. Here, they are
actually telling us. They are telling us what they want to do to the
Jewish people and death to the Great Satan. Let's not give them the
tools to actually carry it out.
The President's promise of anytime, anywhere inspections has been
replaced with managed access to suspect nuclear sites in which
international inspectors must appeal to Iran, Russia, and China. This
bureaucratic process could take up to 24 days at least, during which
Iran would remove anything covert or in violation of the agreement.
The Associated Press now reports that at least one of two secret
deals between the IAEA and Iran--secret deals neither Congress nor even
the Secretary of State has been allowed to see--allows Iran to use its
own inspectors at the military complex long suspected as the
headquarters of Iran's nuclear weapons and ballistic missile program.
Given the Iranian regime's past behavior and contempt for U.S.
negotiators it knows are weak, there is little doubt Iran will cheat
and dare the Obama administration to find violations which prove the
very deficiencies of the deal it negotiated.
Even if Iran does not cheat, even if Iran actually complies with the
deal, three bad outcomes are guaranteed. First, Iran will be allowed an
arsenal--not a bomb--an arsenal of nuclear weapons in as little as 10
years.
Under the agreement, Iran is not required to dismantle key bomb-
making technology, is permitted to retain vast enrichment capacity, may
continue research and development on advanced centrifuges, and will be
allowed to acquire intercontinental ballistic missiles in as little as
8 years. Intercontinental ballistic missiles--those are not for Tel
Aviv; those are for Washington, D.C., and New York.
Second, Iran gets sanctions relief, at least $56 billion almost
immediately, and that is according to the Obama administration itself.
Independent analysis projects the relief could be as much as $150
billion. As a member of the Task Force to Investigate Terrorist
Financing, I have heard extensive testimony that, when these funds are
released, a significant percentage will go to Iran's terrorist proxies
in Gaza, Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen, Nigeria, and elsewhere. Experts warn it
will be impossible to snap back effective sanctions.
Third, because Iran's neighbors know this deal reverses a decades-
long bipartisan U.S. policy blocking Iran's nuclear program, this
agreement will spark a nuclear arms race in the broader Middle East.
Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt have already signaled their intent to
acquire nuclear retaliatory capability if this deal is finalized. The
people who know Iran the best trust them the least.
This President says it is this deal or war, but that is a false
choice. Rejecting this deal will keep most sanctions in place and allow
Congress and our allies to turn up the pressure on Iran to get a better
deal. In fact, I signed a letter with 366 colleagues outlining the
conditions we would consider to be part of a better deal, none of which
were included in the one before us.
On the last night we were in Israel, one of the last nights, as we
finished dinner at a restaurant on the Sea of Galilee, the owner of the
restaurant took the microphone and announced that Members of the
American Congress were here to stop this bad Iran deal. The whole
restaurant stood up and sang ``God Bless America.''
To conclude, Mr. Speaker, on the Iran deal, I proudly stand with our
allies in Israel, not with the mullahs in Tehran.
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