CNN "Wolf" - Transcript: Interview with Sen. Chris Van Hollen
Interview
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BLITZER: There are now less than two weeks left until President Trump has to make a critical decision on the Iran nuclear deal, whether to recertify it or abandon the deal, which was worked out in 2015. The issues are complicated. They were certainly complicated when the White House issued a statement last night saying that Iran, quote, "has a clandestine nuclear weapons program." But very quickly, shortly thereafter, the White House had to correct the "has" to "had," calling it a clerical error.
Here with us right now is the Maryland Democrat Senator Chris Van Hollen.
Senator, thank you for joining us.
SEN. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN, (D), MARYLAND: Good to be here.
BLITZER: What did you think when you saw the wording of the original White House statement suggesting that Iran has a clandestine nuclear program underway right now despite the 2015 agreement?
VAN HOLLEN: For a second, I thought, here we go again, because I remember in the lead-up to the Iraq war, all of a sudden, you had a misinformation campaign about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction. I'm glad they corrected it quickly. It clearly proves the point because Iran did have a nuclear weapons program. That's why it's so important to keep the Iran agreement in place because it cuts off Iran's pathways to nuclear weapons. That should be our goal. Backing off of that would give a green light to the Iranians to go ahead and enrich away.
BLITZER: You want the president to continue to support the 2015 agreement that was worked out with the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, including Russia and China and Germany?
VAN HOLLEN: Yes. I want the United States to keep its commitments here. They are commitments in our national security interests. That's why we've seen the president of France and Merkel coming here and urging the president to keep that in place. And Pompeo, Secretary of State Pompeo, when he appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for his confirmation hearing a few weeks ago, he confirmed that there's absolutely no evidence that Iran is violating the agreement. In other words, Iran is complying by the terms of the agreement.
BLITZER: There was a very strong presentation, a very tough presentation that the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made yesterday. We have live coverage of that here on CNN. But since then, many have come out and said there is no evidence that Iran is violating the agreement right now.
I want you to listen to Michael Hayden, former CIA director, who was on CNN earlier this morning.
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BLITZER: There are others who are suggesting that the information that Prime Minister Netanyahu released yesterday really didn't shed new light, this was old information going back years when Iran was working on a nuclear program.
VAN HOLLEN: Right. And there's absolutely nothing new here. There are more details, but in terms of the finding, there is nothing new. We were well aware of the Iran nuclear program. In fact, Pompeo, in a statement just the other day, confirmed that Iran ended that program in early January 2004.
I should point out that Netanyahu also testified in front of the House back in September 2002 and said that Iraq was heading towards getting a nuclear weapon, and that's why we need to go after Iraq and Saddam Hussain. He was wrong then and he's provided no new information now.
BLITZER: So you think he's wrong right now. Because he wants President Trump to walk away, rip up this deal?
VAN HOLLEN: Yes. He opposed the agreement from the very beginning. Clearly, he's trying to influence President Trump's decision to get him to rip up the deal. I think it would isolate the United States, not Iran. And it would also allow Iran to proceed with more nuclear enrichment and with no inspectors, so we would be flying blind and we would be giving a green light to Iran. Very dangerous.
[13:45:06] BLITZER: You heard what the president said the other day. If he walks away from the deal, rips it up, and the Iranians restart their nuclear program, he warned, in brutal terms, they will regret this, they will suffer like no other country has suffered in a long time, suggesting a real threat of U.S. military action.
VAN HOLLEN: Right. But the whole purpose of the Iran nuclear agreement was to accomplish the goal of making sure Iran doesn't get a nuclear weapon without having to use military force. So why President Trump would want to go to war to stop something that the agreement is right now preventing, which is Iran from getting a nuclear weapon -- and if Iran chooses to violate the agreement, we will know it because we have inspectors. We'll have time to respond. And we have all the alternatives at our disposal. As part of that agreement, Iran agreed not to get a nuclear weapon and agreed to comply to the nuclear --
(CROSSTALK)
BLITZER: But you're not happy with the other stuff the Iranians are doing, promoting terrorism, all these other allegations?
VAN HOLLEN: No, not at all, Wolf. And we should be working with our allies to confront the Iranians on their activities in the greater Middle East with respect to their missile program as well. But the conclusion of the Iran nuclear agreement was a nuclear-armed Iran doing all those bad things is much more dangerous than an Iran doing those things without a nuclear weapon. So let's keep the agreement in place. Then let's work together to address and confront all the other Iranian conflicts.
BLITZER: What do you think he's going to do? He has to make a decision by May 12. He hates -- the president of the United States -- he hates this Iran nuclear deal, as he said in his campaign, and says all the time ever since.
VAN HOLLEN: He did. I hope he will listen not only to our allies, but people within his own administration. Secretary Mattis, secretary of defense, and others have testified this agreement is in our national security interest. He said that to the Congress last fall. It is in our national security interest. Pulling the plug on this and giving it a green light for the Iranians to start again is a very dangerous path and, potentially, a recipe for war. Donald Trump, during the campaign, also said he didn't want the United States having to intervene everywhere around the world, and this would make it much more likely that that could happen.
BLITZER: Yes, I think you're right. Secretary Mattis wants to cool things down. We'll see what the president's new security adviser, John Bolton, who has been a fierce critic of the Iran nuclear deal as well, we'll see what impact he has on this.
VAN HOLLEN: And Bolton has talked about using military force against Iran. Why do that when we have in place an agreement that prevents them from moving --
(CROSSTALK)
VAN HOLLEN: And if they violate it, we still have --
BLITZER: Especially at a time when the U.S. is trying to get a nuclear agreement with North Korea at the same time.
(CROSSTALK)
VAN HOLLEN: That's right. If you're negotiating with North Koreans and they see you're violating the other agreement --
(CROSSTALK)
BLITZER: Thanks, Senator. Thanks so much for coming in.
VAN HOLLEN: Good to be here.
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