Bob Menendez

I do not buy the proposition that war is necessarily automatic.

Having a very strong response to violations is going to be critically important.

Iran has a history here of deceit, deception, delay that has brought us to this point.

I do not think that war is an inevitable consequence of the deal falling apart.

It was pretty clear to me that he never said, yes, at some point, we need to reauthorize this.

I think I did test the proposition with the administration, because I actually said at one point, so you want the sanctions to lapse?

I think that was a very important point. And I may want to follow up with some specific suggestions that you made as to how we can perhaps follow up on that particular point.

I do not think there will be any hesitation by Congress to enhance sanctions against Iran, if their terrorist activities increase.

I would hope that the administration would challenge that letter that the Iranian Ambassador presumably to the U.N. signed.

I mean, my guess is that Iran would continue to adhere to the deal because they were getting some relief.

I would think, at a minimum, we would absolutely extend, at some point, the sanctions we have in place.

That is pretty outrageous. Pretty outrageous.

The sanctions that expire next year that Congress passed 99-0, at least in the Senate, and overwhelmingly in the House, that was signed by the administration.

So basically, what I tried to get from Secretary Lew and what I cannot get from my own government--I have to read it from the Government of Iran--to understand what the agreement as I read it was about.

You cannot have it both ways, Ambassador. Either it is significant or it is insignificant. Which one is it?

Is it not fair to say that if snapback is to mean anything, it has to be snapped back to something, because otherwise what are you snapping back to?

So if oil was more important to you than Iran achieving a nuclear weapon, deterrence is all gone, is basically what you are telling me.

The threat of sanctions, even though suspended during performance, but the threat of sanctions, is a significant deterrent toward breach in the future.

But the sanctions that we passed, in essence, got the other countries to join, because they had secondary consequences to them.

What happened was just the opposite. We actually forged something that brought Iran to the table.

It would have to be a dramatically different Iran to have any aspiration to be a regional power.

That is far different than 'shall not.'

Iran is called upon not to undertake that activity.

Iran shall not undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons.

Let me ask this to the Secretary. Is the President willing to make a clear and unequivocal statement not that all options are on the table because Iran does not believe that that is a credible military threat.