Approval of Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action
Floor Speech
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Mr. ELLISON. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, in 2012, Prime Minister of Israel Netanyahu went to the U.N. with a graph, much like the one right beside me. It was a picture of a bomb with a red line. The Prime Minister said: ``The red line must be drawn on Iran's nuclear enrichment program.''
This deal does that.
Today, we can say that Iran cannot produce or stockpile highly enriched uranium, and it has to get rid of 98 percent of its low enriched uranium. To make sure that they don't achieve a nuclear weapon, we have the strictest inspection regimen in the history of nuclear agreements. The impetus for 2 years of negotiation has been achieved.
So what is the problem?
The gears of war are halted when we prove that negotiation and diplomacy are the best methods of achieving peace. This deal is a triumph of diplomacy over military conflict. It is a win for those who reject the misconception that diplomacy is weakness.
In 2003, Vice President Cheney said: ``I have been charged by the President with making sure that none of the tyrannies in the world are negotiated with.'' The ensuing decades of war brought 6,840 U.S. soldiers home in coffins and squandered trillions of hard-earned, American tax dollars.
Yet, we have learned from that.
We have learned our lesson that we must negotiate, that we must talk it out before we begin to shoot it out. The fact that a majority of Americans supports this deal means that people are tired of sacrificing so much for the bankrupt idea that a conversation is capitulation.
This agreement keeps nuclear weapons out of Iran's hands for decades. In 2003, Iran had 164 centrifuges. In 2005, they had 3,000. In 2009, they had 8,000. By 2013, they had 22,000. While we were rattling sabers and making bravado-type comments about what we were going to do to them, they were making centrifuges. When the President got down to the business of negotiation, we had brought that process to a stop.
We will continue to sanction human rights violators wherever they are, including in Iran, and we will also continue to confront people who export terrorism; but the best way to empower reformers within Iran is to engage. Diplomatic victories require playing the long game. You need patience, and you need unshakable courage in your convictions.
Let me say that I remember the moment in 2007 when then-Senator Obama said he would engage in personal diplomacy with leaders in the Middle East in order to stop bloodshed in the region. That is the moment that I knew I would vote for him, and I am proud to stand here nearly a decade later to congratulate the President for this diplomatic victory.
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