Dick Durbin: “on the floor we are going to return in a few minutes to the debate on the Iran agreement. This agreement, of course, has…”

“on the floor we are going to return in a few minutes to the debate on the Iran agreement. This agreement, of course, has been in the works for a long time. President Obama set out to create a set of sanctions, punishment against Iran to force them to come to the table and to negotiate with us and other nations so they would not develop a nuclear weapon. The President invested a lot of capital in it, and it worked. Congress imposed sanctions. The President imposed sanctions. The day came when the negotiations started, and we weren't sitting alone at the table. It is an amazing alliance of nations trying to stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. It included China, Russia, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, and the European Union. They all joined us in the sanctions, and many others too. But they joined us at the negotiating table, and they worked with us until we reached an agreement. That agreement didn't rely on trusting the Iranians. No. It relied on inspectors, real inspectors from the United Nations who have a sterling reputation. It was those inspectors who warned us before we invaded Iraq that there were no weapons of mass destruction. The Bush- Cheney administration paid no attention. We paid a heavy price for that dereliction of duty. Now these inspectors are in place--will be when this agreement moves forward.…”