{"id":255249,"date":"2022-02-03T17:35:18","date_gmt":"2022-02-03T22:35:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/?p=255249"},"modified":"2023-02-03T18:34:48","modified_gmt":"2023-02-03T17:34:48","slug":"senate-foreign-relations-committee-chair-urges-tougher-sanctions-warns-of-a-bad-deal-with-tehran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/news\/nuclear\/senate-foreign-relations-committee-chair-urges-tougher-sanctions-warns-of-a-bad-deal-with-tehran\/","title":{"rendered":"Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair Urges Tougher Sanctions, Warns of a Bad Deal With Tehran"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Menendez-1\"<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, February 1, U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (D-N.J.),\u00a0Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, took to the Senate Floor to deliver remarks to lay out his growing concerns with the Biden administration\u2019s latest round of negotiations over the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA<\/a>) while the Iranian regime continues to rapidly advance its nuclear program, its ballistic missile program and the proxy warmongering in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs someone who has followed Iran’s nuclear ambition for the better part of three decades, I am here today to raise concerns about the current round of negotiations over the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, and Iran\u2019s dangerously and rapidly escalating nuclear program that has put it on the brink of having enough material for a nuclear weapon,\u201d\u00a0said Chairman Menendez.<\/p>\n

\u201cUpon taking office, the Raisi government abandoned<\/a> all previous understandings and, as I mentioned, made absolutely clear that Iran\u2019s ballistic missiles and regional proxy networks are \u2018not negotiable.\u2019 Moreover, at this point, we seriously have to ask what exactly we are trying to salvage?\u201d the US senator questioned.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst and foremost, my overarching concern with the JCPOA was that it did not require the complete dismantlement of Iran\u2019s nuclear infrastructure,\u201d Chairman Menendez continued: \u201cInstead, it mothballed that infrastructure for 10 years, making it all too easy for Iran to resume its illicit nuclear program at a moment of its choosing. The deal did not require Iran to destroy or fully decommission a single uranium enrichment centrifuge. In fact, over half of Iran\u2019s operating centrifuges at the time, we’re able to continue spinning at its Natanz facility\u2026 Today, Iran has more fissile materials \u2013 2500kg, more advanced centrifuges, and a shorter breakout time \u2013 three to four weeks \u2013 than it had in 2015.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chairman Menendez underscored that over two decades, the Iranian regime had pursued all three elements necessary to create and to deliver a nuclear weapon, namely the fissile material that now indicates the threshold<\/a> time is three to four weeks away, the scientific research and development to build a nuclear warhead, and the ballistic missiles to deliver them.<\/p>\n

Citing the latest rocket and drone attacks against the US troops in the Middle East, Menendez said: \u201cI remain highly skeptical it will suspend any of its other threatening and destabilizing activities, from ballistic missile development to support for terrorist proxies. Even as the United States, our P5+1 partners, and Iran convened in Vienna for indirect negotiations about returning to the JCPOA, Iran\u2019s leaders took it upon themselves to antagonize all parties and show \u2013 in my view \u2013 their true intentions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chairman Menendez called on the Biden administration and the P5+1 to consider new strategies for rolling back Tehran\u2019s nuclear program and addressing its dangerous and nefarious activities as follows:<\/p>\n