Political Quotes

“Mr. President, we acted on a measure I cosponsored to provide new authorities to the President to extend the wide array of existing U.S. sanctions on Hezbollah to any international banks determined by the Treasury Department to facilitate its activities. I commend my colleagues Senators Shaheen and Rubio for introducing an earlier form of this measure and for pressing to ensure Senate action on it. The bill also requires that a range of new policymaking information be provided to Congress from the administration on Hezbollah's malign activities, including its narcotics trafficking and other criminal activity and its terrorism-related and propaganda activity throughout the Middle East. Especially in the wake of the Iran nuclear agreement, which I supported and which is now being implemented, it is critical that we continue to do everything we can to shut down Iran's terrorist proxies like Hezbollah, and to impose powerful financial and other sanctions on those who enable its operational or financial networks. Hezbollah clearly has the potential to continue to threaten Israel, and this must continue to be an important focus of our efforts to confront it directly and to confront those who would finance and support its efforts wherever they may be. In addition, with regional and international spillover effects of the civil war in Syria, we must also keep in mind the damage being done by Hezbollah's extensive support of the dictatorial Assad government.…”