[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Page 7242]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       IRAN AT THE UNITED NATIONS

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I read with interest, and disgust, the 
press reports about the comments of Iranian President Ahmadinejad at 
the United Nations on Monday, when he attempted to defend Iran's secret 
nuclear program and his government's continuing defiance of the 
Security Council.
  I could not help but contrast his words with the efforts so many 
other countries have been making to prevent a nuclear weapon from 
ending up in the hands of a terrorist, or a nuclear arms race from 
taking off in the Middle East or South Asia.
  In the past couple of weeks, the United States and Russia--two former 
enemies that once came to the brink of a nuclear war and since the 
1980s have slashed their nuclear arsenals--agreed to make further 
reductions, and President Obama has said he wants to negotiate deeper 
cuts in furtherance of his long-term vision of a world without nuclear 
weapons.
  On Monday, the Pentagon disclosed publicly the number of weapons that 
remain in our arsenal, which would have been unthinkable a few years 
ago.
  There are serious efforts being made to establish nuclear weapons-
free zones in South America, Africa, and the Middle East.
  And at the United Nations, even countries such as Russia and China, 
which have traditionally sided with Iran, have all but lost patience 
with what Secretary Clinton rightly called Iran's ``history of making 
confusing, contradictory and inaccurate statements.''
  Nobody questions Iran's right to develop nuclear energy for peaceful 
purposes. But the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty is, as United Nations 
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has said, more important today than ever. 
Terrorists like the Times Square bomber could cause death and 
destruction on a scale we have not seen since World War II. Nuclear 
weapons in the hands of terrorists would have consequences for life as 
we know it that are almost unfathomable. And Iran has long been a state 
sponsor of terrorism.
  President Ahmadinejad insists there is no proof that Iran is building 
a nuclear weapon, at the same time that he refuses to permit the kind 
of international inspections that could establish whether Iran's 
nuclear program is only for peaceful purposes. After Iran was offered 
the option of sending its enriched uranium to Russia and France for 
refinement into fuel rods for its research reactor, he responded by 
stalling with one contradictory counteroffer after another, all the 
while continuing to enrich increasing amounts of uranium to the point 
when Iran now is believed to have enough to build two nuclear bombs.
  Mr. President, I want to commend Secretary of State Clinton for her 
measured, strong statements at the United Nations about Iran's 
duplicitous, dangerous flaunting of the international nuclear control 
regime. It does not appear that anything short of sweeping, 
multilateral sanctions has a chance of convincing Iran's leaders to 
change their reckless course.
  It is tragic that Iran, a country of such talented, sophisticated 
people--many of whom risked their lives to protest a blatantly 
fraudulent election and who want peaceful relations with the United 
States--currently has a President who is squandering Iran's resources 
and reputation in pursuit of a narcissistic, foolhardy quest for a 
nuclear bomb that will only increase his country's isolation and 
intensify Iran's confrontational relationship with its neighbors and 
the international community. The potential consequences could not be 
more frightening for ordinary people everywhere, including the people 
of Iran, and the Security Council should delay no further in imposing 
the strongest possible sanctions.

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