On the recordJune 24, 2010
Mr. President, I rise today in strong support of the conference report for the Iran Refined Petroleum Sanctions Act. First, I would like to commend Senator Dodd for putting forth a comprehensive plan to arm the administration with the tools they need to put a stop to Iran's rogue nuclear program. I believe when it comes to Iran, we should never take the military option off the table. But I have long argued that economic sanctions are the preferred and probably the most effective way to choke Iran's nuclear ambitions. The Obama administration initiated direct diplomatic negotiations with Iran, but that government, led by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, stubbornly refused to suspend their nuclear program despite President Obama's genuine attempts at diplomacy. Iran's nuclear weapons program represents a severe threat to American national interests because their acquisition of nuclear weapons could lead to the proliferation of nuclear weapons throughout the Middle East and beyond, ending any hopes for a nuclear weapons-free world. Make no mistake, a nuclear Iran would be destabilizing to its neighbors, encourage terrorism against the United States and Israel, and the risk of both conventional and nuclear war in the Middle East would rise considerably. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has already threatened to ``wipe Israel off the map,'' so we know for a fact that a nuclear Iran would pose a potential threat to our closest ally in the region, the State of Israel.…
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