[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 1]
[House]
[Page 519]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 TOUGH, PERSISTENT DIPLOMACY WITH IRAN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Doggett) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DOGGETT. Mr. Speaker, next Monday, when our country honors an 
apostle of nonviolence, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Iran will begin 
reducing its nuclear stockpile.
  This important action is part of an international agreement to begin 
implementing the interim Joint Plan of Action that was announced in 
November. Hope for a nonviolent resolution of our conflict with Iran 
will appropriately advance on a day that honors nonviolence.
  Some in Congress have been unwilling to accept these negotiations or 
to acknowledge that the administration has been successful in uniting 
other countries around the world in enforcing sanctions against Iran.
  Indeed, in what appears to have been largely a partisan outcry, some 
of our colleagues condemned the November agreement late on the Saturday 
night when it was announced, without knowing what was in it, other than 
that President Obama had approved it.
  As a Member, myself, who has consistently voted here to impose tough 
economic sanctions on Iran, I believe that these sanctions have worked. 
The choice is not between sanctions and no sanctions. It is between 
recognizing that our sanctions have the potential to realize our 
important goals and not give up on them without even really trying.
  The Iranians are well aware that this Congress can act almost 
instantly to add even more stringent sanctions if they waver from 
diplomacy.
  Can we trust the current Iranian regime? Of course not. That is why 
the painstaking task of verifying every operational detail of any final 
agreement is so very important.
  If done with the thoroughness required, this is a task that may well 
take more than 6 months; but as negotiations for a permanent agreement 
get under way, we will have new, regular inspections to verify 
compliance, something we have not had in the past.
  To prevent a nuclear-armed Iran, and to ensure the safety of our 
families and families around the world, a measurable, verifiable 
negotiated agreement is the wiser course over the unknowable, unlimited 
risk of war.
  Those who would intrude on these fragile negotiations now only 
increase the danger of Iran becoming a nuclear-armed power. They would 
undermine the international coalition that has enforced the existing 
sanctions, and they would empower those hard-line ayatollahs, giving 
them a pretext to stop progress, giving that to the very people, who 
reject any cooperation and regularly demand death to America and death 
to Israel.
  Congress must not impede the diplomatic alternative to war. 
Ultimately, that diplomacy may not be successful. It may not achieve a 
final, verifiable agreement; but we should make every reasonable effort 
toward that end.
  There are no more important issues considered in this Capitol 
Building, undertaken by this Congress, than the questions of war and 
peace.
  Just as I do not trust Iran, I do not trust war as the best way to 
prevent a nuclear Iran, and war is the true alternative offered by 
those here who would interfere or limit these negotiations.
  Starting a war in Iraq cost us so very dearly, and it did not make us 
safer. Let's not repeat that deadly mistake.
  Congress should commend Secretary of State John Kerry, Under 
Secretary Wendy Sherman, and President Barack Obama for their 
leadership through tough, persistent diplomacy, through the wise use of 
American power.

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