[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 94 (Wednesday, June 3, 2026)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2505-S2507]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                  IRAN

  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, yesterday, at the Senate Foreign Relations

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Committee hearing, some of our colleagues suggested that the United 
States started a war against Iran 92 days ago. I believe the facts are 
to the contrary. Iran started a war against the United States and our 
ally Israel in 1979 from the date of the Iranian Revolution.
  This is the backdrop to President Trump's military campaign known as 
Operation Epic Fury. While the operation has formally concluded--and 
there is ostensibly a cease-fire--there doesn't seem to be a resolution 
of the conflict to be sure. Meanwhile, there has been a block in the 
Strait of Hormuz, through which 20 percent of the world's energy 
supplies flow ordinarily. At the same time, the Iranian economy is 
collapsing.
  Operation Epic Fury built on the success of last summer's Operation 
Midnight Hammer, which targeted three nuclear facilities--successfully 
eliminating top nuclear scientists--and it concluded within 12 days.
  Negotiations, of course, are ongoing to address the underlying issues 
between Iran and the United States and Israel, particularly Iran's 
nuclear program that led to this conflict in the first place. And it 
remains to be seen if a permanent, durable resolution is possible.
  Now, bizarrely, Democrats have almost universally criticized 
President Trump's actions toward Iran, and there has been a great deal 
of pressure on the administration to bring these negotiations to a 
close under any terms.
  But ever since Bill Clinton was President, Republicans and Democratic 
Presidents alike have warned us about the risk of a nuclear Iran. And 
President Trump, to his credit, was in charge when we finally did 
something decisive about it.
  But in order to assess how these ongoing hostilities should end, it 
is worth taking a step backward and remembering why we started down 
this path in the first place.
  The ostensible purpose of Operation Epic Fury--building on Operation 
Midnight Hammer last summer--was always to prevent the Islamic regime 
from acquiring a nuclear weapon and to stop them from continuing to 
enrich uranium, as President Trump pointed out last year--that remains 
the goal--and to dismantle their ability to enrich uranium in the 
future, I might add.
  The President has made very clear that he does not want Iran to ever 
get a nuclear weapon, and in a normal world, you would think there 
would be unanimous agreement among Republicans and Democrats.
  Well, I agree with President Trump's position, and I hope we stay the 
course and complete the job that we started. Last summer, he summarized 
the situation well, and this is the quote: You can't have peace if Iran 
has a nuclear weapon.
  That remains our ultimate objective: peace. But if Iran gets a 
nuclear weapon, we will not have peace. We will have a ticking nuclear 
time bomb. Yesterday, in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, our 
former colleague Secretary of State Marco Rubio described the 
existential threat that Iran's possession of a nuclear weapon would 
create.
  He said: If Iran ever acquired a nuclear weapon, they would be able 
to hold the world hostage. They would hyperscale their efforts of 
global terrorism and completely try to drive us out of the region and 
ultimately destroy the State of Israel. And you wouldn't be able to do 
anything about it--he said--because they would have a nuclear weapon 
and would threaten to blow people up if you tried to move against them.
  The radical regime of Iran is the No. 1 state sponsor of terrorism, 
and they have made it abundantly clear to the United States and to the 
world that they cannot be trusted. They support, of course, terrorist 
proxies such as Hezbollah, al-Qaida, Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic 
Jihad, the Houthis.
  Recall that Iran provided materiel support for attacks on American 
soil in the runup to September 11, 2001. They backed and sometimes 
directly carried out attacks on Americans over multiple decades in the 
Middle East. They funded and trained Hamas terrorists who murdered more 
than 1,200 innocent men, women, and children, including 46 Americans, 
on October 7, 2023. Closer to home, Iran is also actively financing 
drug trafficking activities in Central America and is using the 
proceeds from this illicit commerce to continue funding their terror 
activities around the world.
  Once Iran achieves a nuclear weapon, they will have complete leverage 
over the Strait of Hormuz. They can continue to fund terrorism around 
the globe, including here in the Western Hemisphere. The President's 
actions against the Islamic Republic of Iran demonstrate his 
understanding and appreciation of the danger that a nuclear Iran would 
pose to America and the world.
  Now, of course, if possible, we should always hope that there could 
be productive negotiations and a cease-fire, but it has to be 
verifiable. We have to achieve the goals that the President has set out 
for us, and we can't back off of that without badly botching the 
leverage that we have now to accomplish these goals.
  Perhaps the most significant current point of contention is that Iran 
has, of course, effectively, closed the Strait of Hormuz in attempting 
to choke off the global energy supply, leading to higher gas prices 
here at home. Treasury Secretary Bessent has acknowledged that, if the 
strait is not opened, a global financial crisis could ensue. At the 
same time--and as a checkmate--the United States has blockaded Iranian 
ships as well, which has proven to be extremely effective and has 
created enormous leverage for the United States and our allies.
  The Iranian economy is in very bad shape and is in desperate need of 
relief. Again, this is another part of the maximum leverage campaign 
that the President started years ago. Given this, they have, obviously, 
proposed--the Iranian regime that is--that the United States unfreeze 
its assets and deliver sanctions relief as part of any negotiated deal.
  Reporting from Reuters noted just a few days ago that Iran is 
``pushing for a limited interim agreement with the United States in a 
bid to ease mounting economic pressure and stabilize the situation at 
home, while avoiding major concessions on its nuclear program.''
  I sincerely hope we don't take the bait. Agreeing to these demands 
would be a grave miscalculation. If the United States were to give Iran 
billions of dollars in sanctions relief in exchange for reopening the 
strait, there is no doubt the money would be put to nefarious purposes. 
Plus, there is no promise or no guarantee they won't simply close it 
again in order to extract more concessions in the future.
  If we remove the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports and passage through 
Iranian waters without eliminating their nuclear program and the highly 
enriched uranium as well as their capacity to enrich in the future, 
then we forfeit a key point of leverage against the regime, and we will 
have failed to accomplish our goals in defanging the regime.
  Operation Epic Fury and the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports has been 
extremely successful in reducing the threat posed by the Iranian 
regime. More than 13,000 targets have been struck, including Iranian 
ballistic missile sites, ballistic missile and drone manufacturing 
facilities, weapons production and storage bunkers, and surface-to-air 
missile facilities. Iran has lost many of its missile launchers, and 
missile attacks have fallen by 90 percent. More than 150 Iranian Navy 
vessels have been damaged or destroyed.
  As these negotiations for a resolution to this conflict proceed 
toward their conclusion, it is important that we keep a couple of 
things in mind.
  First, we must resist the temptation to declare this war has been 
futile or unsuccessful. We are not done yet. Weakening the world's No. 
1 state sponsor of terror and removing its ability to acquire nuclear 
weapons will make the world a safer place.
  Second, we must remember why the United States and Israel took such 
decisive actions in the first place, and we have to make sure the job 
is finished in such a way that it will provide for a lasting resolution 
and lasting peace.
  I know there is a lot of pressure on President Trump and this 
administration to end the conflict as soon as possible on any terms, 
but that would be a serious mistake.
  I believe President Reagan aptly captured this point in an address he 
gave to Congress after a summit with the Soviet Union, when he said:


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       We know that peace is not just the absence of war. We don't 
     want a phony peace or a frail peace. We didn't go in pursuit 
     of some kind of illusory detente. We can't be satisfied with 
     cosmetic improvements that won't stand the test of time. We 
     want real peace.

  I hope President Trump will not waste this once-in-a-generation 
opportunity to end Iran's nuclear program, to recover the enriched 
uranium and eliminate their capacity to enrich in the future, and to 
force the opening--reopening--of the Strait of Hormuz and make it 
impossible for the regime to continue to hold the world hostage.
  I hope President Trump will stay strong in pursuit of these 
objectives and that, if the Iranian regime will not yet agree to those 
in a verifiable manner, then I hope the President will use his 
authority as Commander in Chief to do so and force them to the 
negotiating table on terms that we insist on, not on what they demand.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Ms. LUMMIS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Ricketts). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Armstrong). The Senator from Florida.

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