Pulling Out of Iran Nuclear Deal

Floor Speech

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Mr. KUSTOFF of Tennessee. My friend from New York is my leader. I recognize that and will yield to him in that respect.

I also appreciate his taking the time to organize this evening this very important issue. I think we all realize that the defense of our Nation and our allies is one of the most important reasons that we function as a government.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of President Trump's recent decision to withdraw from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action also known as the Iran deal.

In November of 2017, I spoke here on the House floor lauding President Trump's decision to decertify the Iran deal. Today I am glad to stand here with the news that the United States is finally withdrawing from this deeply flawed deal and reimposing tough sanctions on Tehran.

Just a few months ago, April 30 of this year, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unveiled a massive supply of documents revealing Iran's developments of a secret nuclear weapons program while claiming otherwise. In reality, Iran kept these documents in a secured vault ensuring that the International Atomic Energy Agency would never find them during their inspection. With the Prime Minister's revelations, the Iranian regime is believed to have been falsifying reports to the agency for years, and the deal failed in its basic objective to prevent the regime from obtaining nuclear weapons.

This hard evidence by Israeli intelligence only further illustrates that Iran cannot be trusted by the international community and only continues to harbor hostility that threatens our national security interests.

As we have seen over the years, the Iran deal has also failed to prevent the further testing of ballistic missiles. According to the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Iran has launched 23 illicit ballistic missiles since the beginning of the signing of the Iran deal in July of 2015.

Now, one of these was a new long-range missile with capabilities to carry multiple warheads. This was the country's third test of a missile with a range of approximately 1,200 miles and fully capable of reaching Israel.

Against multiple United Nations Security Council resolutions, Iran continues to invest time, invest energy, and invest resources into its ballistic missile program. These illicit tests are dangerous, they are unacceptable, and they cannot continue to occur.

Additionally, Iran continues to be one of the world's largest state sponsors of terrorism with the IRGC operatives in Lebanon, in Syria, and in Gaza, all of which surrounds our friend and our ally, Israel.

Just today, Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps Deputy Commander Major General Hossein Salami stated that Iran's regional allies were ``awaiting orders to eradicate the evil regime.'' This is in reference to Israel. It is clear that Iran's aggression in the region is dramatically increasing, leaving Israel and other surrounding countries vulnerable to a nuclear weapons attack.

This past February, just a few months ago, Israel shot down an Iranian drone that had been dispatched from a Syrian airbase 30 seconds after it crossed into Israeli airspace. It was not until April 13 of this year when Israel revealed that the Iranian drone was carrying explosives with plans to attack and destroy an unspecified target in Israel. Think about it. Had this situation been escalated to nuclear warfare, one can only imagine the devastation that would have ensued.

We have got to say enough is enough. We cannot enable Iran to enrich tons of uranium; we cannot enable Iran to test ballistic missiles against the United Nations Security Council resolutions; we cannot enable Iran to funnel $150 billion of frozen assets to terrorist proxies such as Hamas and Hezbollah; and we cannot enable Iran's belligerence to escalate.

While the previous administration failed in their intent to inhibit Iran from its perilous activities, quite frankly, President Trump did not. He did the right thing for the United States; he did the right thing for Israel; and he did the right thing for our allies throughout the world.

I am pleased that the President saw the dangers of the Iran deal as it did not stop Iran's ambition to become nuclear, but rather paves it.

As we work in Congress to implement further sanctions against the Iranian regime, we must protect our allies in the Middle East and effectively prevent Iran from progressing with their nuclear weapons program.

I, again, want to thank my friend and my colleague from New York, Congressman Zeldin, for leading this discussion so that all the issues and, frankly, all the facts can be out on the table.

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the great leadership Congressman Zeldin has shown on this issue.

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