Political Quotes

“Senator McCain is absolutely right. The interim deal does not dismantle the centrifuges. They are spinning as we talk. They disconnect, not dismantle, some advanced centrifuges that have been installed. What people need to realize is that the Iranians, over the last decade--particularly the last 3 years--have developed a very mature enrichment program: 18,000 centrifuges. They do not need 20-percent enriched uranium anymore for these new centrifuges to get to 90 percent, which would produce a uranium-based bomb; they can do it with a 3\1/2\-percent stockpile. So I guess this is the basic question for us as a nation and the world at large: Do you believe the Iranians when they say that they are not trying to develop a nuclear weapon, that they are only trying to develop peaceful nuclear power? Do you believe them when they make that claim given the reality of their enrichment program, their lying, and their cheating? If their goal is to enrich not for peaceful nuclear power purposes but to make a bomb, how do you get them to change their goal? I think what Senator McCain is pointing out is very important. The interim deal, like it or not, has legitimized enrichment in Iran. How do you go from not dismantling the plutonium reactor--complete dismantling, shutting down and dismantling the centrifuges--and turning the stockpile over to the international community after the interim deal--how do you go from there to the end game? We are so far away from an acceptable outcome.…”