[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 15857]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         THE IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Florida (Ms. Ros-Lehtinen) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, we are just 6 days away from the 
November 24 Iran nuclear negotiations deadline, and as each day passes 
and we get closer to the impending deadline, we are presented with more 
and more evidence that Iran is not serious about abandoning its nuclear 
ambitions.
  Here are the reasons why Iran remains the greatest threat to U.S. 
national security interests:
  Iran has been a U.S.-designated State Sponsor of Terrorism since 1984 
and has been the foremost supporter for terrorist groups across the 
world since the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
  Through its proxies likes Hezbollah and Hamas, Iran has targeted 
America and our ally, the democratic Jewish State of Israel, with 
violent acts of terror for over three decades, including the 1979 
Iranian hostage crisis, the 1983 Beirut bombing and Marine barracks 
bombing, and the 1992 Israeli Embassy bombing and the 1994 AMIA Jewish 
community center bombing, both in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
  Iran has been the chief supporter of Hamas' and Hezbollah's terrorist 
and rocket attacks in Israel like we saw in the year 2006 and 2012 and 
again just this past summer. In fact, since the Iranian hostage crisis 
in 1979, the United States has been officially in a continued state of 
national emergency with respect to Iran, a state of emergency that 
President Obama just renewed last week.
  Tehran continues to demand that it has a right to enrich its own 
uranium. After operating a covert nuclear program for decades, Iran 
forfeited any so-called right to enrichment. Yet the centrifuges 
continue to spin and President Obama has seemingly acquiesced to Iran's 
illegitimate claim to enrichment.
  The regime in Tehran also maintains an advanced ballistic missile 
program, a program that just this week it used to threaten Israel and 
U.S. military bases in the Middle East. And it is a program that 
continues to expand in violation of several U.N. Security Council 
resolutions.
  Iran also remains one of the world's worst human rights violators. It 
is currently designated a Tier 1 Country of Particular Concern, a 
designation reserved for the world's worst, most egregious violators of 
religious freedom as stated by our own State Department and the U.S. 
Commission on International Religious Freedom. Despite the selection, 
not a real election, of a so-called moderate last year, Iran's human 
rights record has only gotten worse as Iran has executed a record 
number of people under so-called President Rouhani.
  And despite all of this clear and indisputable evidence that Iran is 
led by a dangerous regime that cannot be trusted, these misguided 
negotiations taking place right now focus solely on Tehran's illicit 
nuclear program, and none of it is based on its other illicit 
activities.
  So while the President continues to try to reach a deal on Iran's 
nuclear program at, seemingly, any cost, he has turned a blind eye to 
the multitude of other threats that Iran poses to us and to global 
security.
  Mr. Speaker, the President and the P5+1 countries are operating as if 
Iran's nuclear program exists in a vacuum, and, in doing so, it 
jeopardizes the stability of the Middle East and the security of many 
of us in the West. There is every reason to believe that these 
negotiations are just one big ploy by the Iranian regime, and the Obama 
administration has fallen for it. That is why it is up to us in 
Congress to be the counterbalance.
  Tomorrow, the subcommittee which I chair will be convening a hearing 
on the Iranian deal with former CIA Director General Hayden as one of 
our witnesses. The general has said that right now we are not getting 
the proper monitoring and verification provisions that we need, and he 
said were he still advising the President, General Hayden would tell 
him that this deal could not be adequately verified.
  That is why we must take action to ensure that the administration 
does not agree to a weak and bad nuclear deal, and we must not waver in 
our resolve. Unless the negotiations result in agreement that ends 
Iran's other illicit activities and ensures that Iran will stop all 
enrichment and will dismantle its nuclear infrastructure, then we must 
act to impose and strengthen and expand sanctions against the regime, 
and the administration must walk away and abandon these foolish and 
dangerous talks.

                          ____________________