Confronting the Iranian Challenge

The Trump administration has urged France and Germany and Britain to help address the full range of threats posed by the Iranian regime. U.S. negotiators have rightly pushed for fixes to the deeply flawed Iran nuclear agreement, including stronger inspections, new sanctions on Iran's ballistic missiles program, and a solution to the deal's sunset problem. Addressing these serious shortcomings is a must to keep Iran from threatening the United States and our allies with a nuclear weapon. The deal does not shut off Iran's path to a nuclear weapon. It does not allow inspectors "anywhere, anytime, 24/7 access." It does not stop the regime's pursuit of intercontinental ballistic missiles and it gives Tehran an infusion of cash to support more of its terrorist activities around the world. That said, I believe the best path forward at this point is to continue to fix these flaws as we enforce the hell out of the deal. The Obama administration has put us in a tough spot. Roughly, $100 billion was given to Iran. At least $1.7 billion of that was an apparent cash ransom payment, stacked on pallets and flown, against the advice of the Justice Department and other officials, to the Iranian regime at the time when the three hostages were released. Much of these funds have likely found their way into the hands of the Revolutionary Guard Corps. Tearing up the nuclear deal will not recover this cash. It also won't help galvanize our allies into addressing Iran's dangerous activities that threaten us all. I fear a withdrawal would actually set back these efforts and Congress has heard nothing about an alternative. Last week's move by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to unveil Iran's secret nuclear weapons archive reminds us all what is at stake. Despite its repeated denials, Iran had a comprehensive program to design, to test, and to build a nuclear weapon.