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  • 1 year ago
During remarks on the Senate floor Wednesday, Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) spoke about snapback sanctions imposed on Iran.
Transcript
00:00We haven't heard much about Iran lately.
00:05Iran's been busy, though.
00:11Just recently, Australia expelled Iran's ambassador.
00:20And they designated the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps,
00:27which is part of Iran, as a terrorist organization.
00:33Why is that?
00:35Because people connected with Iran firebombed a Melbourne synagogue.
00:46And then a few months later, they struck a kosher deli in Sydney, Australia.
00:55Iran's still there.
00:56And it's still spreading terrorism.
01:02Iran's also been in the news just recently.
01:07The United Kingdom and France and Germany have announced
01:12that they're going to trigger snapback sanctions on Iran.
01:19What do I mean by that?
01:20You will recall that in 2015, President Obama made a deal with Iran.
01:29We call it the JPCOA.
01:31And the JPCOA just said to Iran, if you will stop moving toward a nuclear weapon,
01:43we, meaning the United States of America and the other countries that are part of the United Nations,
01:50will remove the sanctions, will remove the sanctions that we had placed on Iran for trying to develop a nuclear weapon.
01:57So Iran said, pinky promise, we'll stop building a nuclear weapon.
02:05You remove the sanctions.
02:07President Obama agreed.
02:09He was naive.
02:11We remove the sanctions.
02:14The United Nations removed the sanctions.
02:16The United Kingdom, Germany, France removed the sanctions.
02:21And, of course, the Ayatollah in Iran continued to develop a weapon.
02:28Just because we have destroyed, we meaning the United States of America,
02:33many of Iran's facilities to make that weapon does not mean that the issue has been resolved.
02:39Iran has refused to come to the table, even still, to negotiate a settlement, a new JPCOA.
02:51And as a result, and I'm very proud of it, the United Kingdom and Germany and France have said,
03:00OK, we're going to re-implement those sanctions that we took off, we agreed to take off of Iran,
03:09when they signed the first nuclear deal, which Iran welched on almost immediately.
03:16And, again, I want to thank our friends in Europe.
03:21They supposedly are going to re-implement those sanctions at the end of this month.
03:28And I hope they do.
03:31Of course, my preference would be to have Iran come to the table before then
03:35and sit down with the United States and other members of the United Nations
03:40and resolve this issue of them having a nuclear weapon.
03:45But I don't expect that to happen.
03:49And so I know I've said it, but I want to say it again.
03:53Thank you, United Kingdom and Germany and France for doing this.
03:57But we need to talk about the rest of the story.
04:02The sanctions, which will be on Iranian banking, Iranian shipping, oil, arms,
04:12are only part of the story.
04:15These are UN sanctions.
04:18But just because the sanctions have been brought back on Iran,
04:23that doesn't mean that they will be enforced.
04:26Now, normally, these are United Nations sanctions on shipping and banking and oil and arms.
04:35So, normally, there would be a United Nations committee to enforce the sanctions.
04:39I hope there is, but I doubt it, because I think that Russia and China are going to block
04:50a United Nations committee to enforce the sanctions.
04:55What's my point?
04:56My point is that just because Europe and, of course, the United States of America
05:01have agreed to reimpose these sanctions, we've still got to enforce them.
05:07We have still got to enforce them.
05:10And the United States needs to take the lead on doing that.
05:15And we need to, joining with the United Kingdom and with Germany and with France,
05:25we need to make sure that the world understands that these sanctions are real
05:30and that we, as part of the West, are going to enforce them.
05:34This is important.
05:38I don't want to get this, I don't want to see this get lost in our discussion
05:43about the importance of the Ukraine situation and other issues of national security.
05:51I don't want to get this to get lost.
05:55What you allow is what will continue.
05:57And unless you have an opium habit, you know that that is the, that is just a principle
06:10we all have to learn the hard way.
06:13So I'm hoping that the President and our friends in Europe will take the lead
06:18and not only snap back these sanctions, but then enforce them.
06:23And unfortunately, I wish we didn't have to do it because I feel for the Iranian people.
06:29I don't feel any sympathy for the Aitoha.
06:31We're just going to have to choke them to death economically.
06:35Thank you for your, your patience, Mr. President.
06:38I suggest the absence of a quorum.
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