Political Quotes

“we in the House are persuaded that missile transfers from Russia to Iran pose a great threat to the United States and to our allies in the Middle East and Europe. We are especially troubled by reports we received to the effect that Iran is only 9 to 12 months away from achieving an indigenous missile capacity. We welcome the efforts undertaken with Russia to resolve this problem, but we cannot ignore the reports that we received that since Ambassador Wisner went to work on this problem, the pace of Russian transfers to Iran has increased rather than decreased. At this stage, we therefore feel compelled to act on this matter. Our legislation is based on a slightly different philosophy than the administration's diplomatic efforts. We are not seeking to coerce the Russian Government to do anything. Rather, we target our sanctions on the Russian entities that are making missile transfers to Iran. Most of these entities are interested in future business dealings with the United States, particularly in the area of aerospace cooperation. The point of our legislation is to tell these entities in no uncertain terms that continued dealings with Iran will be fatal to any future cooperation with the United States.”