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Floor Speech

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Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, some years ago, I had the privilege of visiting our American servicemembers stationed in the U.S. Navy Fifth Fleet in Bahrain--an impressive group keeping a close eye on Iran.

Despite a relatively pro-Western population, Iran's hard-line leadership regularly has threatened the United States' interests and its allies.

Iran has long funneled money and weapons to some of the region's worst proxies--Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis--some of whom have attacked U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria. That is why I supported the Iran nuclear agreement under President Obama--not because it would stop Iran's belligerence in the region but because it would prevent it from doing so armed with a nuclear bomb.

Well, this weekend, we saw the Iranian threat in a massive attempted attack on Israel--one that Israel, with the help of the United States and other allies, was thankfully largely able to thwart. I hope cooler heads will prevail and keep this conflict from escalating in an already unstable region of the world.

But make no mistake, because former President Trump petulantly withdrew the United States from the Iran nuclear agreement--an agreement that was working to contain that dangerous program--Iran is inching ever closer to a nuclear weapon. Iran has also cozied up to Vladimir Putin--surprise--who is desperate for weapons from any rogue regime to fuel his disastrous war in Ukraine.

So it seems to me it is long overdue for House Republicans this week to stop doing Russia's bidding by blocking the Senate-passed national security supplemental.

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