Supporting Sanctions on Iran
Floor Speech
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. HOEVEN. I appreciate the opportunity to join my esteemed colleague from the great State of South Carolina in support of S. Res. 65, expressing our strong support for our close friend and ally, Israel.
This resolution right up front says--I want to read from the subheading in the resolution--"Strongly supports the full implementation of the United States and international sanctions on Iran, and urging the President to continue to strengthen enforcement of sanctions legislation.''
This is very important. I want to buttress a comment made by the good Senator from South Carolina, and that is through Kirk-Menendez and other legislation, we have provided authority for the administration to put the strongest possible sanctions in place against Iran to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. We need to do it. We need to stand with Israel. We need to support our ally. This is not just about Israel, this is about security for the United States. This is about preventing Iran from getting a nuclear weapon.
Essentially what these sanctions do is they provide any country or company that buys oil from Iran cannot do business with our banking system. Think about that. Countries that buy oil from Iran would not be able to transact with the United States and U.S. companies. That would preclude them from buying Iranian oil.
Okay. Think about that. If Iran cannot sell its oil, it has no revenue. If it has no revenue, it is forced to stop its efforts to build a nuclear weapon. So the point is this: We cannot only have sanctions. What we are trying to do in this legislation is not only express support for Israel, again as the Senator from South Carolina pointed out, but encourage and support the administration in completely enforcing the strongest possible sanctions against Iran so we do not have to go to the option of a military strike to take out their nuclear weapon capability. That is what this is all about. This is bipartisan--as the Senator said, 91 cosponsors. This is about saying we can get this done but we have got to impose these sanctions as strongly as we can. We have got to do it now.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source