[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 10]
[House]
[Pages 13942-13943]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Kentucky (Mr. Barr) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BARR. Mr. Speaker, last month, I traveled to Israel with more 
than 35 of my colleagues to meet with key leaders in that country, 
including Prime Minister Netanyahu, and learned firsthand what our 
closest ally in the Middle East thinks about the proposed Iran nuclear 
agreement, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action between 
the P5+1 countries and Iran.
  The consensus view from the Israelis across the political spectrum, 
from the Prime Minister to the opposition leader in the Knesset, Isaac 
Herzog, from the President of the State of Israel, Reuven Rivlin, to 
the military leaders in the Israeli Defense Forces, they all agree that 
the deal negotiated by Secretary Kerry and championed by President 
Obama is a dangerous and historic mistake.
  This confirms what we have learned in briefings and hearings in 
Congress. This deal will not deliver the safety and security the 
American people deserve. Instead, it will transform Iran from the 
world's leading state sponsor of terrorism with an illicit nuclear 
program into the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism awash in 
billions of dollars in sanctions relief with an internationally 
sanctioned nuclear program on an industrial scale.
  This is not just a bad deal for Israel. This is not just a bad deal 
for America. A nuclear Iran is a global threat to
everyone everywhere. Consider the counterparty to this deal. Since the 
seizure of the U.S. Embassy and the taking of 52 American hostages 
during the 1979 revolution, the Islamic Republic of Iran has taken the 
long view on its global ambitions of exporting its revolution, 
supporting terrorist proxies like Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis, and Boko 
Haram.
  The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and the leader of its elite 
Quds Force, Qasem Soleimani, is responsible for the killing of over 500 
U.S. soldiers in Iraq.
  The Iranian regime has covered up and lied about its nuclear program 
for

[[Page 13943]]

decades, deceiving international inspectors, agreeing to intrusive 
inspections, and then allowing those inspections to be implemented only 
provisionally and selectively. Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah 
Khamenei, regularly chants ``death to America'' and openly calls for 
the annihilation of the Jewish people and the destruction of Israel.
  In Jerusalem, we visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial museum. 
There, we saw exhibits recounting the horrifying images of the 
Holocaust. During our visit with Prime Minister Netanyahu, he made a 
profound observation. He said they compare this to the 1930s.
  This is not like the 1930s. In the 1930s, the Nazis concealed their 
intentions for the Jewish people in the Holocaust. Here, they are 
actually telling us. They are telling us what they want to do to the 
Jewish people and death to the Great Satan. Let's not give them the 
tools to actually carry it out.
  The President's promise of anytime, anywhere inspections has been 
replaced with managed access to suspect nuclear sites in which 
international inspectors must appeal to Iran, Russia, and China. This 
bureaucratic process could take up to 24 days at least, during which 
Iran would remove anything covert or in violation of the agreement.
  The Associated Press now reports that at least one of two secret 
deals between the IAEA and Iran--secret deals neither Congress nor even 
the Secretary of State has been allowed to see--allows Iran to use its 
own inspectors at the military complex long suspected as the 
headquarters of Iran's nuclear weapons and ballistic missile program.
  Given the Iranian regime's past behavior and contempt for U.S. 
negotiators it knows are weak, there is little doubt Iran will cheat 
and dare the Obama administration to find violations which prove the 
very deficiencies of the deal it negotiated.
  Even if Iran does not cheat, even if Iran actually complies with the 
deal, three bad outcomes are guaranteed. First, Iran will be allowed an 
arsenal--not a bomb--an arsenal of nuclear weapons in as little as 10 
years.
  Under the agreement, Iran is not required to dismantle key bomb-
making technology, is permitted to retain vast enrichment capacity, may 
continue research and development on advanced centrifuges, and will be 
allowed to acquire intercontinental ballistic missiles in as little as 
8 years. Intercontinental ballistic missiles--those are not for Tel 
Aviv; those are for Washington, D.C., and New York.
  Second, Iran gets sanctions relief, at least $56 billion almost 
immediately, and that is according to the Obama administration itself. 
Independent analysis projects the relief could be as much as $150 
billion. As a member of the Task Force to Investigate Terrorist 
Financing, I have heard extensive testimony that, when these funds are 
released, a significant percentage will go to Iran's terrorist proxies 
in Gaza, Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen, Nigeria, and elsewhere. Experts warn it 
will be impossible to snap back effective sanctions.
  Third, because Iran's neighbors know this deal reverses a decades-
long bipartisan U.S. policy blocking Iran's nuclear program, this 
agreement will spark a nuclear arms race in the broader Middle East. 
Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt have already signaled their intent to 
acquire nuclear retaliatory capability if this deal is finalized. The 
people who know Iran the best trust them the least.
  This President says it is this deal or war, but that is a false 
choice. Rejecting this deal will keep most sanctions in place and allow 
Congress and our allies to turn up the pressure on Iran to get a better 
deal. In fact, I signed a letter with 366 colleagues outlining the 
conditions we would consider to be part of a better deal, none of which 
were included in the one before us.
  On the last night we were in Israel, one of the last nights, as we 
finished dinner at a restaurant on the Sea of Galilee, the owner of the 
restaurant took the microphone and announced that Members of the 
American Congress were here to stop this bad Iran deal. The whole 
restaurant stood up and sang ``God Bless America.''
  To conclude, Mr. Speaker, on the Iran deal, I proudly stand with our 
allies in Israel, not with the mullahs in Tehran.

                          ____________________