[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 96 (Thursday, June 5, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3245-S3247]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                              Middle East

  Mr. LANKFORD. Mr. President, I wanted to just give a quick update on 
a project I was working on last week to my fellow Senators.
  I spent the last week, during Memorial Day week, in the Middle East. 
Angus King and I actually traveled to Baghdad, Erbil, Beirut, and Oman. 
And then Angus left out for Turkiye, and I left out for Jerusalem.
  It is exceptionally helpful to be able to walk through the different 
countries of the region right now. Obviously, there is a tremendous 
amount of instability around Syria. We had the opportunity to be able 
to ask leaders in every single one of those countries about the future 
of Syria and the options that are there and what could happen.
  It is to America's best interest to be able to have a stable Middle 
East and a functioning relationship in all of those countries.
  Just a quick walk-through of a couple things that I think are 
important there: In Baghdad, they are actively working to be able to 
reach out to American companies. There is a real interest there and, 
quite frankly, a growth in Baghdad's economy, in Iraq's economy. They 
are trying to be able to stabilize, though they are still very close to 
Iran and to Tehran.
  As chilling as it is, when I went in to meet with the Prime Minister, 
you can't go to the Prime Minister's office without going through the 
large traffic circle right outside his office, where he has a giant 
depiction of the martyr Soleimani in front of his office. That is the 
Iranian head of the IRGC that actively worked to kill as many Americans 
as possible. It was a reminder that there are still challenges in this 
region, while they are still welcoming to American businesses.
  In Erbil, in the Kurdish Regional Government, they truly love 
America, and there is a true Western feel when you get to Erbil. They 
are open for commerce. They are open for capitalism.
  They are still a part of Iraq, but they are very interested in 
turning their attention toward the Western world and toward engaging in 
a great deal of American business. In fact, one of the most prideful 
moments of the conversation were on the American businesses that are 
coming through and engaging in the Kurdish Regional Government, in that 
area. To be able to see--I counted 15 cranes across Erbil, with the 
construction that is happening there. It is remarkable to be able to 
see the investment that is coming into that area.
  It is good for us to continue to be able to maintain relationships 
with that region, and they are grateful to be able to be a partner to 
the United States. But even they are saying to their Kurdish friends 
that are over on the eastern side of Syria that they should turn their 
attention toward Damascus in forming a unified Syrian Government.
  In the broad diversity that is Syria, with Kurds, with Turks, with 
Alawites, with Sunnis, with Shias, with Christians that are all in 
Syria in multiple areas and then in the broad swath of the desert area 
in the south, to still see a stronghold for ISIS that remains in 
Syria--it was a reminder again of the challenges this new Syrian 
Government has.
  It was interesting as well to me that every single one of the leaders 
that I met in the area all raised to me their gratitude for President 
Trump canceling the sanctions on Syria. They all said: We don't know 
exactly which way the Syrian Government is going to go. It is too early 
to be able to tell.
  But American sanctions would have prevented them from ever being 
successful in the future. So they expressed their gratitude over and 
over again to the United States for giving Syria a shot to be able to 
form its own country and its own nation.
  When we landed in Beirut, we landed on a Sunday. It was the Sunday 
before Memorial Day Monday. It was a sober reminder to wake up in 
Beirut at the Embassy compound and to just walk that half block from 
where I was staying there over to the memorial that is on the Embassy 
compound for the many, many lives that have been lost over the years in 
Beirut, including the 241 marines that died in the marine barracks in 
1983. To be there on that ground on Memorial Day was sobering to say 
the least.
  But I have to tell you, I have been to Lebanon multiple times. I have 
met with the Lebanese leaders multiple times and with the Lebanese 
Armed Forces. I have never left Lebanon more optimistic than when I 
left Lebanon, when I took off. The new leadership there--President 
Aoun, the new Prime Minister there--is focused on fixing the banking 
system in Lebanon, fixing the port, repairing the airport, and getting 
a new economic infrastructure in place.
  They said over and over again: We are not looking for assistance 
coming to us; we are looking for investors to be able to be here. We 
want to be open for business and have people from all over the world to 
be able to come here to be able to do business, so we are going to get 
our systems right and get rid of corruption.
  They also said something that was a pretty remarkable statement. They 
said they want to have a monopoly on military weapons. Now, that may 
not

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seem like a big deal to us as Americans, but there have been two 
militaries in Lebanon for decades: Hezbollah's military and the 
Lebanese Armed Forces. The places where Hezbollah's military stands, 
the Lebanese Armed Forces don't go--until now.
  With Israel's bombardment of Hezbollah in the south, what is south of 
the Litani River, the Lebanese Armed Forces have moved into that area, 
and now the Lebanese Army is actually defending Lebanon--not some 
terrorist organization trying to be able to defend southern Lebanon; 
the Lebanese Armed Forces are actually stepping up to be able to do 
that. They are taking the lead in those areas, setting up posts.
  The government there is very focused on getting weapons out of the 
Palestinian refugee camps that are there in Lebanon and defanging 
Hezbollah in the south and Hezbollah in the Beqaa Valley bordering with 
Syria. They are serious about taking on drug interdictions along their 
border with Syria. They are serious about trying to be able to balance 
things out.
  I have to give kudos to Morgan Ortagus. She has done a phenomenal job 
there, and her name came up over and over again in my meetings with the 
Lebanese leaders as they saw her as a straight shooter and a good 
negotiator between Israel and Lebanon to be able to establish a lasting 
border and a lasting peace and relationships.
  There are American leaders--what they call the mechanism--there as 
well.
  That mechanism is helping monitor the cease-fire between Israel and 
Lebanon, and they have become a trusted partner to both sides of that 
border.
  We as the United States do make a difference when we engage in 
different parts of the world. Lebanon and Israel would not be 
experiencing the peace they are experiencing right now if it was not 
for American engagement.
  No other country in the world walks in and has the reputation that 
the United States of America does, so it allows us to be able to step 
in and help provide stability by just our presence and our engagement 
to be able to be there.
  There are not large numbers of Americans that are there, but it is to 
America's benefit to see peace between Lebanon and Israel, not just 
because of two countries far away in the Middle East, but in Israel--
there are 700,000 Americans in Israel right now--right now. If we want 
to be able to stand with those Americans that are right now in Israel, 
we don't want to see Hezbollah's rockets coming at our citizens from 
the north. We also have hundreds of thousands of Lebanese Americans and 
their families and Americans living in Lebanon.
  We should continue to be able to have our relationships and our 
engagement there to be able to provide a stable, lasting peace, and 
there is a shot for that like there has not been for decades between 
Lebanon and Israel.
  When we left out from Lebanon, we went to be able to meet the King in 
Amman, Jordan. He is a trusted partner with the United States, and he 
is passionate about bringing a peaceful relationship with the entire 
region. He is somebody who actively wants to see stable relationships 
and a stable region, and he is doing the work that it takes, hard work 
in that region on things like water. It is not a simple thing 
everywhere in the world like it is in most places in the United States. 
When you are in Jordan, that is a tough challenge.
  But the ability to be able to bring nations together, to be able to 
provide that kind of engagement with the country of Jordan and our 
friendship with the King there, matters.
  We left out from Amman, and I drove to Jerusalem. Israel is facing 
very real risks. This body knows it well, and we have had plenty of 
conversations about it for a very long time.

  The United States stands with our ally Israel. It was interesting for 
me to be able to see Israeli press there that has a whisper going out 
among the Israeli press that the United States is walking away from 
Israel. That is far from the truth. The United States continues to 
stand with our ally and friend Israel. But Israel is facing a 
multifront war. What they are dealing with day after day after day, we 
as Americans would never put up with.
  We are now about 612 days past October 7 of last year. There are 
still hostages being held in Gaza today. Today, there are still 
hostages. There are still challenges being faced every single day.
  The day that I arrived in Israel happened to be the first day that a 
new strategy for getting humanitarian aid into Gaza started--that day. 
It was a chaotic day of a brandnew plan of, how do we not have huge 
bags of flour and food be delivered and then Hamas scoops those up and 
then Hamas tries to be able to portion it out as they choose and 
instead deliver boxes of food to a family where they have a week's 
worth of food there, to a group of people who have no chance to be able 
to get to a grocery store, no chance to be able to get options for 
food?
  So they experimented with a brandnew way to be able to do that--which 
was, by the way, an American-Israeli partnership--to be able to deliver 
that food into Gaza.
  That first chaotic day, tens of thousands of boxes of food were 
delivered to Gazans who are desperate. That led to the second day, a 
little better; the next day, a little better; the next day, a little 
better. Each day, they tried to figure out how to maintain security, 
how to maintain order, how to register people, and to be able to make 
sure as many people as possible are getting as much food as possible 
and to be able to get that out to people who desperately need the help.
  Each day, that humanitarian aid is getting better and better as they 
are learning how to be able to do it more effectively now. That is 
important to us because we care about all human life. We are Americans. 
We have people that we disagree with, people that we disagree with 
strongly, but we still care about the dignity of human life.
  So we are watching that aid actually go into the country, and I am 
proud, actually, that we as the United States, as private citizens in 
the United States, are a part of delivering that aid that is 
desperately needed there.
  But I will tell you, my conversation in Israel with key leadership 
there, including with the Prime Minister, always circles around the 
threat of Iran--always--because the rockets that are coming in from 
Gaza were paid for by Iran. The rockets and missiles and unmanned 
drones that were coming in from southern Lebanon were paid for by Iran. 
The missiles and rockets that are coming in from Yemen against Israel 
are paid for by Iran.
  As they face all the challenges that are around them--and I could go 
on and on and on--as they face all the challenges that are around them, 
we cannot forget that the Iranian people live under the thumb of an 
oppressive Iranian regime that is not just oppressive to their own 
people, they are the destabilizing force in the entire region.
  The one thing that is clear in this is that we have to make sure we 
strengthen our sanctions against the Iranian regime so that they cannot 
have more money to do more acts of terrorism.
  They can never ever have a nuclear weapon. That means no enrichment. 
That means no centrifuges. That means no opportunity to be able to 
create a nuclear weapon. Iran has used their centrifuge technology to 
be able to enrich uranium up to 60 percent. There is zero purpose for 
highly enriched uranium other than a weapon. They cannot in one moment 
say they are not trying to weaponize and in the next moment brag about 
how much they have enriched uranium. Those two don't go together.
  So we as Americans have to be vigilant because if you look at the 
flag of the Houthis in Yemen, the flag of the Houthis in Yemen has five 
phrases on it. Let me give you two of them: ``Death to the Jews'' and 
``Death to the Americans.'' That is not a banner; that is their 
national flag. They are serious about it, and I think we shouldn't just 
say: No, they are kidding. They are not.
  So we cannot allow the Iranians to continue to be able to arm the 
rest of the area and to be able to bring the fight to us and pretend 
that is never going to happen. We have learned the lesson of 2001. 
People that are far away will do what they can in their deep hatred to 
come to us. So we should make sure that the Iranian regime never gets a 
nuclear weapon and that we remain clear and concise on that.

[[Page S3247]]

  There are a lot of things that we can continue to be able to talk 
about as we talk about multiple regions around the world, but as we 
focus on so many areas around the world, we cannot lose focus on the 
Middle East--the opportunities and the promise that are there but also 
the threats that still remain. So let's stay vigilant.
  I yield the floor.