Mr. President, I rise in strong support of the Menendez- Kirk amendment. I particularly thank my partner Senator Menendez, a member of the Banking Committee, who has been a leader regarding Iranian terror, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and repression of human rights for 20 or 25 years now. We are reaching a decisive point now in the relations of Iran to other countries and, most importantly, to the United States. I think this amendment comes at one of the final hours of how peaceful means and economic sanctions can be used to avoid a conflict. That is why it is so important for the Senate to adopt the Menendez-Kirk amendment, with the long-term goal of collapsing the Central Bank of Iran, so that country doesn't produce nuclear weapons that would destabilize the entire Middle East. We launched this effort, along with Senator Schumer, particularly in August when we called on our President to sanction the Central Bank of Iran. In these partisan times in which the two sides are far apart on many issues, we had 92 Senators--all but 8 Senators signed the letter-- saying: Collapse the Central Bank of Iran and use this as a tool in our diplomatic war chest to make sure we can remove one of the greatest dangers from the country, from one of the most dangerous regimes. The record is pretty clear. The International Atomic Energy Agency has ruled on the subject of Iran.…
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