[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 43 (Thursday, March 17, 2016)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1569-S1571]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
IRAN
Mr. COONS. Mr. President, last week the Iranian Revolutionary Guard
Corps, or IRGC--the hard-line military force that answers only to
Iran's Supreme Leader and is committed to the preservation of Iran's
revolutionary regime--launched a number of ballistic missiles, in clear
violation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2231. These
missile launches are profoundly disturbing and suggest a regime that is
content on continuing to destabilize the region and threaten our vital
allies and its neighbors. They don't technically violate the terms of
last summer's nuclear agreement, but they do serve as a vital reminder
that Iran remains a revolutionary regime that does not respect world
opinion and does not share our values or interests.
America and our allies must seek every opportunity to push back on
Iran's aggressive behavior--especially behavior such as this that is
outside the parameters of the nuclear deal--by enforcing existing
sanctions on Iran's illegal ballistic missile tests, its ongoing human
rights abuses, and its support for terrorism across the Middle East and
the world.
Another critical way the international community can demonstrate we
are serious about holding Iran accountable is by aggressively enforcing
the terms of the nuclear deal. Today I will discuss a key element of
enforcing that deal: fully funding the International Atomic Energy
Agency, IAEA, the world's nuclear watchdog, which is responsible for
monitoring Iran's compliance with the deal. The case for providing
robust, sustainable funding for the IAEA is further strengthened by a
second topic I will discuss, which is Iran's continued human rights
abuses.
Iran's compliance with the nuclear deal so far does not mean that its
government intends to embrace the international community or heed the
call of the Iranian people for greater democracy. In fact, I believe
the actions of the IRGC and Iran's hard-line conservative leaders
indicate that the Iranian regime intends to continue to repress
dissent, block democratic reforms, incite anti-Semitism, and violate
basic human rights.
Mr. President, in a speech to the United Nations in December of 1953,
President Eisenhower proclaimed American support for a new
international organization tasked with putting nuclear technology
``into the hands of those who will know how to strip its military
casing and adapt it to the arts of peace.''
Since its founding in 1957, the IAEA has undertaken a broad array of
responsibilities--from promoting international nonproliferation efforts
to supporting peaceful nuclear power--but none more vital than
maintaining its safeguards program, which provides
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credible assurances that countries are honoring their international
obligations to use nuclear technology and material only for peaceful
purposes.
The IAEA could not do its job without the ongoing full support of the
United States. The United States develops the inspections technology on
which the IAEA depends. We train and support the IAEA inspectors,
scientists, and staff, particularly through our system of National
Laboratories. Since 1980, every single IAEA inspector has been trained
at least once at the Los Alamos National Lab in New Mexico. At any
given time, roughly 20 percent of all the inspectors who work for the
IAEA are undergoing training or retraining at the vital National Labs
of the United States.
The commitment made by American scientists and taxpayers to the IAEA
is even more important now in light of the agreement reached by world
powers last summer to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.
This agreement, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan Of Action,
or JCPOA, gives the IAEA unprecedented access to monitor Iran's nuclear
efforts through highly intrusive physical inspections and 24-7 remote
monitoring technology. Unlike previous nuclear agreements, the JCPOA
requires Iran to allow the IAEA to monitor Iran's entire nuclear fuel
cycle, which includes all the steps required to go from mining and
milling raw uranium to producing centrifuges that enrich uranium, to
the actual enrichment sites.
The IAEA's regular inspections and continuous monitoring and
oversight mean that the international community will know if Iran tries
to cheat on the terms of the JCPOA before it can dash to a nuclear
weapon or build a bomb in secret. But access alone is not enough. The
IAEA must have the resources to actually inspect, monitor, and verify
Iran's compliance with the nuclear deal by confirming that Iran's
nuclear declarations are accurate and comprehensive, by monitoring
their declared sites to ensure Iran's behavior actually complies with
the terms of the JCPOA, and by tracking all nuclear-related material
leaving every facility to make sure Iran doesn't divert and pursue
illicit nuclear activities elsewhere in their country.
Given Iran's long record of cheating and of pursuing nuclear weapons
illicitly over the decades past, investing resources in ensuring that
the IAEA can take advantage of this unprecedented opportunity is a wise
investment not just for the American people but for the world. To
fulfill these responsibilities in addition to its regular and ongoing
mission of ensuring nonproliferation in every other country in the
world, the IAEA must have the resources to turn access into oversight.
Back in January, I traveled with seven other Senators to the IAEA's
headquarters in Vienna, Austria, and there we heard directly from
Director General Yukiya Amano about the challenges the agency faces in
fulfilling its new responsibilities under the JCPOA. At the top of that
list of challenges is securing a reliable, long-term source of funding.
A recent report by our own nonpartisan Government Accountability Office
here in the United States echos those very same concerns, stating that
``the IAEA faces potential budgetary and human resource management
challenges stemming from the JCPOA-related workload.''
Effectively enforcing the terms of the JCPOA will require more than
just additional inspectors, while inspectors are vital; the IAEA will
also be required to train a new generation of nuclear scientists and to
continue to develop more and more innovative nuclear detection and
monitoring technologies as well--an undertaking as complex as it is
important. That is why I urge Congress to increase America's voluntary
contribution to the IAEA to a level at least $10.6 million above the
President's fiscal year 2017 request and commit to a sustained and
long-term investment so that we can be confident that the IAEA has the
resources to recruit, to train, and to place the very best inspectors
the world can produce. The increase of $10.6 million that I am urging
will provide reliable funding for the IAEA--the funding they need to
monitor the Iran nuclear program while continuing to work for safe,
secure, and peaceful use of nuclear technology throughout the rest of
the world.
An additional $10 million would not crowd out contributions from
other states. American representatives at the U.N. offices in Vienna
could direct extra funding to specific projects or withhold it from
others, allowing us to address unanticipated needs by the IAEA without
discouraging other donors from fulfilling their obligations as they
should.
We also need to continue to insist on full transparency so that
reports received by the IAEA, things they might learn, are shared with
the United States--with our intelligence community, with our lawmakers,
with our executive branch--and to ensure, frankly, that we know if
there are additional classified or secret agreements, side agreements
between the IAEA and Iran.
Look, whether my colleagues supported the JCPOA or opposed it, surely
we can agree that it is in America's interest to see the IAEA succeed
in monitoring Iran's behavior and attracting the best and brightest
young scientists from around the world for years to come. As Brent
Scowcroft--who served ably as National Security Advisor to both
President Gerald Ford and later President George H.W. Bush--wrote in an
August 21 Washington Post op-ed, Congress ``should ensure that the
International Atomic Energy Agency and other relevant bodies and U.S.
intelligence agencies have all the resources necessary to facilitate
inspection and monitor compliance'' with the nuclear deal with Iran.
To fully and sustainably fund the IAEA is to make a sound investment
in a highly technical organization that directly contributes to
international peace and our security. But why exactly is it so
important that we fund the IAEA, enforce the JCPOA, and push back on
Iran at every opportunity? A brief review of Iran's dismal human rights
record might reenforce why it is crystal clear that this is a priority
for our Nation and must remain so.
Iran's Government continues to preach anti-Semitism, to incite hatred
against Israel, and to call for the destruction of the Jewish State of
Israel, and it uses state-run media to blame the Jewish people for the
instability and violence that currently dominates the Middle East. Just
last week, one of the ballistic missiles Iran illegally launched
supposedly had a message printed on the side in Hebrew saying, ``Israel
must be wiped off the earth.''
In January, as the international community marked Holocaust
Remembrance Day, Iran's Supreme Leader published a video on his
official Web site in which the narrator condemns the world for
supporting Israel and questions the legitimacy and magnitude of the
Holocaust. These statements should deeply concern and outrage the world
community, but they are simply another reflection of the Iranian
regime's longstanding disregard for international values and human
rights.
Earlier this month, the United Nations issued a report showing that
the number of people executed by the Iranian Government skyrocketed to
nearly 1,000 last year--twice as many as in 2010 and 10 times as many
as in 2005. Most of these executions were allegedly for drug-related
offenses. According to some reports, last year one village in Iran saw
every single adult male--every single one in the entire village--
executed for so-called drug crimes.
These alarming statistics follow a January report from Amnesty
International that documented Iran's execution of over 70 juveniles in
the decade from 2005 to 2015, with another 160 young juvenile offenders
still on death row. No country in the world uses capital punishment for
minors more than Iran. And despite Iran's ratification of an
international treaty banning capital punishment for minors, Iranian law
still allows the death penalty for girls as young as 9 and boys as
young as 15.
In addition, Iran's unelected Guardian Council suppressed democracy
in its most recent elections, preventing the vast majority of either
female or reform-minded candidates from even appearing on ballots.
Iran has illegally and inappropriately detained American citizens,
including retired FBI agent Robert Levinson and Iranian American energy
executive Siamak Namazi--both of whom we believe remain detained in
Iran. The Committee to Protect Journalists estimates that at least 19
reporters are
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today still being held unjustly by the Iranian Government.
These are just a few examples among countless many of Iran's
unwillingness to respect even the most basic norms of international
human rights. Effectively pushing back on these egregious human rights
abuses and enforcing the JCPOA demands international collaboration, but
increasing our voluntary contribution to the IAEA makes a direct impact
without requiring approval or action by any other country.
There are two other additional unilateral steps this Congress can
take today.
First, we could increase Federal investment in our National
Laboratories, which train the IAEA inspectors I spoke about, develop
technologies that nuclear inspectors depend on, and undertake research
that improves the lives of people around the world.
Second, and more promptly, the Senate could and should confirm Laura
Holgate, a nonproliferation expert who was nominated more than 5 months
ago to serve as America's Ambassador to the U.N. agencies of Vienna,
which includes the IAEA. After months of delays for purely political
reasons, her nomination was finally approved by the Foreign Relations
Committee on January 28. The full Senate should not delay any further
to ensure that our government is represented at the very organization
the world relies upon to prevent Iran from gaining a nuclear weapon.
Later this month, the President will convene heads of state from
around the world for a fourth Nuclear Security Summit, a conference
dedicated to preventing nuclear terrorism and securing stockpiles of
nuclear material from around the world. The IAEA is at the very
forefront of this vital mission, and we need to work together to make
sure it has the tools it needs to take on these serious tasks.
These goals demand involvement from every actor on the international
stage, but by increasing America's voluntary contribution to the IAEA
by an additional $10 million, Congress can send a strong signal that we
intend to hold Iran to the terms of the JCPOA, to support the
international cause of nonproliferation, and to provide a vital
incentive for our international partners to dedicate more of their
resources to this important agency.
Iran remains today a revolutionary regime fundamentally opposed to
America's values and interests. Iran's ballistic missile tests just
last week serve as another reminder that the Iranian Government is
neither America's friend nor ally. We must be relentless in our efforts
to push back on these missile tests, on Iran's destabilizing support
for terrorism, and on its human rights abuses. We must continue to
enforce the existing sanctions in American law and be willing to
consider imposing new ones when Iran's behavior warrants it.
Let me be clear about one thing in closing. The Persian culture, the
culture of the people of Iran, is one of great richness and complexity.
I have had the blessing of knowing many Persian Americans in my life
and have known them to be people of great intellect and inventiveness
and capability and to be the products of an ancient and respectable
culture. We in the United States do not wish the people of Iran ill,
but the Iranian regime and those who support it deserve international
condemnation for a decades-long pattern of human rights abuses, support
for terrorism, and other bad behavior. But we can and should make a
distinction between the Iranian regime and the Persian people.
The people of Iran--those who turn out at polls to vote even in
elections that are neither free nor fair and who have repeatedly
demonstrated in the streets for democracy and engagement, risking life
and limb to do so in the decade past--must know that the American
people support the struggle of those who hope for real democracy
someday in Iran and those who hope for an Iranian regime that someday
respects international values and human rights.
So today, just a few days before Monday's Iranian New Year of Nowruz,
we wish the people of Iran a happy, healthy, and peaceful new year,
while continuing to stand firm against the values and actions of the
Iranian regime.
Thank you.
With that, I yield the floor.
Mr. COONS. Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mrs. Ernst). The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. HATCH. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
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