Howard Berman: “while I agree with a number of the points made by my dear friend and the ranking member of the Committee on…”

“while I agree with a number of the points made by my dear friend and the ranking member of the Committee on International Relations, I come to a different conclusion on the issue of House passage of this bill, and I rise in support of the passage of H.R. 2930. I think it pays to take a couple of moments to just restate sort of what we know about contributions to the Iranian missile program. First of all, we know it has been clearly reported, it is not in dispute, that Iran has developed, has a nuclear weapons program. It is also quite clear that Iran has also embarked on a program to develop medium and long-range missiles. The Iranian missile program has been contributed to recently by a number of transfers of technology in parts from the Russian SS-4 intermediate range ballistic missile, and apparently Iran Shihab-3 and Shihab-4 missiles are being designed with Russian assistance to expand to a range of 930 to 1,250 miles. There have been additional reports that Iran is working toward developing a multistage intercontinental missile with a range of 3,500 missiles. When we take their nuclear program and their missile program together, I think everyone in this Chamber can understand just how dangerous this can be if Iran is successful in its pursuits in these areas. The more sophisticated weapon assistance that Iran receives from abroad, the quicker Iran will realize its goal of a long-range weapon delivery system.”