Foreign Policy (Executive Calendar); Congressional Record Vol. 168, No. 55

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Foreign Policy

Mr. LANKFORD. Madam President, a lot of Americans are tracking day by

day what is happening in Russia and Ukraine, as we watch the Russian

Army continue to be able to roll its way through Ukraine and, city by

city, pummel innocent people--so, literally, to shell homes,

apartments, businesses; to level whole cities to the ground for the

sake of Russia's aggression.

This Congress and this body in particular, in the Senate, have spoken

out often on this issue. I am grateful that the President has engaged

to be able to apply sanctions, to be able to cut off purchases with

Russia, to be able to slowly open up the weaponry that we are giving to

the Ukrainians, as they continue to ask for more. They are looking for

help. The Oklahomans whom I talked to want us to provide help.

But it is ironic, and some people may not know, that while we are

isolating Russia in every way that we possibly can, right now, this

administration is working with the Russian representatives to be our

spokesmen to Iran negotiating a revised nuclear deal with Iran. We are

not doing face-to-face negotiations with Iran. We are working through

the Russian representative to represent our beliefs to the Iranians.

Now, if anyone in this room could say they trust the Russians to

represent our values at the table with Iran, please, rise, because we

don't and we shouldn't, and it makes absolutely no sense that a revised

nuclear deal is

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being done with Iran through the Russian negotiations while Russia is

currently pummeling Ukraine. I wish I could tell you that is even the

worst part of this deal.

Iran has a couple of things that they need to be able to get to a

nuclear weapon. The two things they need are time and money. They have

the technology. They have the know-how. They have the facilities. They

have the advanced centrifuges. They just need time and money. My

frustration with the Iranian nuclear deal that was done under the Obama

administration was that it gave them both time and money. It set a 10-

year window where they couldn't have nuclear material that could be

usable for a nuclear weapon, but it allocated $100 billion in relief of

sanctions to the Iranians--$100 billion to the Iranian regime.

Now, I have no beef with the Iranian people. They are remarkable

people, extremely well educated, but they live under the thumb of a

horrible regime.

What did the Iranian regime do with the $100 billion that they were

given?

Well, we saw the advance of the war in Yemen that happened as the

Iranians were supplying the Houthis to be able to attack the Saudis and

the Emiratis. We saw what happened in Lebanon with the support for

Hezbollah to be able to attack Israel and to continue to destabilize.

We saw what the Iranians did in Syria, supporting Bashar al-Assad and

becoming his army in many areas across Syria, and that ruthless

dictator is still there today because of Iranian support, because of

the $100 billion that was given to Iran so they could prop up Assad and

so he could stay in place. That is what happened with the $100 billion

that Iran was given last time.

Then, the Trump administration came in and took away that and imposed

maximum pressure on the Iranians, walked away from the deal, and said:

We are not going to give the largest state sponsor of terrorism in the

world billions of dollars of access to capital; that seems like a

terrible idea.

And I can assure you, the people of Syria understood that was a

terrible idea.

But now, what? President Biden has reopened negotiations, as I

mentioned before, by using Russia as our proxy to be able to negotiate

this. Today, we had negotiators that were brought on by the Biden

administration, who are former negotiators under the Obama

administration, to renegotiate this deal, who have quit the negotiating

team and who have said that this negotiation is going so badly that

they will not be a part of it, and they walked away.

We don't know everything that is in this deal, and I would say to

you, quite frankly, I am not encouraged by what bit of rumors that I am

hearing in this deal. I am hearing that this deal puts us back into the

timetable that was done years ago under the Obama administration to

give the 10-year window, that we are back into that same window that

allows them to move to a nuclear weapon at an end-time period, that it

doesn't challenge their terrorist activities, that it doesn't challenge

their missile development.

Literally, they are developing ballistic missiles designed to carry a

nuclear warhead, and that is not part of this agreement, apparently, to

restrict their development of a missile capable of carrying nuclear

material, as long as they don't actually work to develop that nuclear

material.

It releases sanctions to them. So, again, they get billions of

dollars. And in the negotiations we hear, at this point, it lifts

sanctions on the entities in Iran that took away the property and the

homes from Iranian Jews in 1979, which we have had sanctions on. We

understand it takes the sanctions off of those responsible for the

Beirut bombing in 1983 that killed 243 Americans, mostly marines.

We also understand that it changes the status of Iran from being

recognized as a state sponsor of terrorism--even though they are--and

that there is a negotiation to take the Iranian Revolutionary Guard

Corps off the list of a foreign terrorist organizations.

Are you kidding me?

This is not a good deal for the peace of the region. This does not

prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power. This continues to

destabilize our relationships with our allies in the region, as Saudi

Arabia and the Emiratis and the Israelis and everyone stare at the

Americans and say: Why in the world would you make this deal that would

allow Iran to become a nuclear power in the days ahead?

Let me tell you, this is personal for many American families who lost

a loved one in the battle in Iraq, when Iran engages the Iranian

Revolutionary Guard to provide lethal equipment to the Iraqis so they

could kill more Americans. Many Americans died in Iraq because of

Iranian actions.

On March 11, 2020, Technical Sergeant Roberts from Owasso, OK, was

killed in Iraq when an Iran-backed militia group, equipped by Iranians,

supported by the regime, arbitrarily launched rockets at American

forces in Iraq, killing Technical Sergeant Roberts.

Listen, this is personal for a lot of families. This is not some

theoretical negotiation. This is a problem.

Why we would say to the Russians, \\\`\\\`Negotiate on our behalf,'' while

they are slaughtering Ukrainians and we are sanctioning those same

Russians. Makes no sense. But a deal that lifts the sanctions on the

Iranian Revolutionary Guard, on those that killed Americans in 1983 in

Beirut, to give access to missile technology and to look away from

their terrorist activities with Hezbollah and Hamas and in Yemen and in

multiple other places in the world is not a deal Americans should make.

Mr. President, walk away from this. There is a reason that your own

staff is walking out of the conversation--because you are headed the

wrong way.

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