Sen. Menendez: Deal Will Help ‘Iran Deploy International Terrorism’
RUSH TRANSCRIPT:
DIAZ-BALART: "And senator, Ali Arouzi, our bureau chief in Iran said really what this does is it keeps the Iranian nuclear program virtually intact. And add to that what we're seeing, we have to look through all the details of the 100-plus page agreement, but we're looking at lifting the ban on ballistic missiles, sanctions, eight years or sooner, and possibly billions of dollars going to the Iranian regime as a consequence of this. Isn't that, though, worth the price of paying if indeed Iran does not get nuclear weapons?"
MENENDEZ: "Well, first of all, it's amazing to me that we included the arms embargo and the missile technology question as part of this deal. The reality is that there's a reason why Iran wants that. It wants to be able to continue to deploy its terrorism throughout the region as it is presently doing, even in desperate economic straits. I worry about intercontinental ballistic missiles and their ability to produce it. They have been refining missiles to be able to do that. When they get $100 billion to $150 billion, yes, most of it will probably be spent in Iran, but if you just take 10% for the terrorism efforts, we have a real challenge in what will happen in the greater Middle East as a result of Iran having that type of money. The question is, this does not guarantee that Iran will not achieve a nuclear weapon in the future.
"And I wish when the president came out today one of the things he would have said that would have assuaged me a little bit would have been under no circumstances will the United States permit Iran to achieve a nuclear weapon. He didn't say that. And the reality is that a decade from now, when many of the elements of this program are over, Iran is going to be able to move forward. It has a significant part of its infrastructure in place. It with reassemble that which it has stored and off we go. The question is, if you're going to have to face an Iran that is determined to achieve nuclear weapons, do you want to face them when they're at their weakest point, both economically and otherwise, and their defense mechanisms or do you want to face them when they're at their strongest point, when their economy has revived, when they are flush with money, when they bought the s-300 from Russia that is a defense missile system that will make it harder should they break out. These are the questions we have to look add on the Senate foreign relations committee."
