[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 159 (Tuesday, September 15, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5577-S5578]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            THE MIDDLE EAST

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, yesterday, I discussed a tide of good 
news flowing out of the Middle East. Peace agreements between Israel 
and the UAE and Israel and Bahrain will be documented at the White 
House later today. Even more Arab countries are reportedly considering 
following suit. The winds of change are blowing across the Middle East. 
Thanks, in large part, to the hard work of the Trump administration, 
they are blowing toward peace.
  I also mentioned yesterday that not everyone is happy. Not everyone 
in the Middle East is living in the 21st century. Some are too vested 
in the old fights and enmities and are afraid to let them go. President 
Abbas, who is now in the 16th year of a 4-year term at the head of the 
Palestinian Authority, predictably, tried to dismiss the compromise as 
nonsense. But, as the Obama administration's Middle East expert Dennis 
Ross wrote a few days ago, continuing this failed approach would just 
guarantee Palestinians will be left behind while the rest of the Arab 
world builds a better future.
  And then there is the theocratic basket case that is Iran. Last 
weekend, as if perfectly scripted to contrast with the hopeful news of 
optimism and peace coming from the Arab world, the mullahs reminded the 
whole world of their flagrant disdain for human dignity and basic human 
rights. They carried out a hurried execution in the face of 
international condemnation.
  Navid Afkari, a 27-year-old Iranian wrestler arrested during a 
government protest in 2018, was tortured into confessing to the murder 
of a security guard. He was hanged on Saturday. According to his 
mother, who was barred from visiting her son before his execution, 
Navid and his two brothers arrested alongside him were forced to 
testify against one another. As they mourn their brother, these two 
young men themselves face decades in prison

[[Page S5578]]

for standing up to the brutal injustices of the Iranian regime.
  Stories like this are tragic, but they aren't shocking--not in a 
country where dissent and free expression are denied and not from 
rulers who regularly use both domestic and international terrorism. 
This regime has its fingerprints on destabilizing campaigns, 
assassinations, and violence against civilians in every single corner 
of the Middle East--from the shores of the Mediterranean to the Gulf of 
Aden.
  The Obama-Biden administration's Iran deal, the JCPOA, did not 
improve any of this bad behavior. It ignored Iran's nonnuclear 
aggression. It let Tehran continue R&D on enriched uranium. If 
anything, Iran's behavior has only gotten worse, and that bad deal is 
still doing damage.
  This year, it will sunset a prudent U.N. Security Council resolution 
that had kept Iran from buying conventional weapons. This summer, the 
U.N. Security Council, with the votes of Russia and China, refused to 
extend this 13-year-old embargo.
  Returning to the JCPOA has become a sort of mantra for our political 
left here in the United States. But really, the reflex to oppose 
everything President Trump does can be a gift to our adversaries. 
Former Vice President Biden promises to rush back into a bad deal 
without securing any improvements. He proposes we would be able to 
renegotiate the bad deal from the inside of it after tossing away any 
leverage in advance.
  There is one right way to deal with regimes like Iran--toughness and 
resolve. That is why President Trump successfully restored an important 
measure of deterrence when he removed Iran's top terrorist, Soleimani, 
from the battlefield forever.
  Even though Tehran is weakened by sanctions, political unrest, and 
economic unease, they are also emboldened by our internal divisions and 
eager to exploit rifts among our allies. We know from publicly released 
intelligence that Iran seeks to interfere in our own politics. We know 
that Iranian-backed groups continue to threaten our forces in Iraq and 
Syria. We know that Iranian proxies like Hezbollah pose a growing 
threat to our ally Israel.
  Unity, strength and resolve are the way to defend our security and 
our interests--not capitulation.

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