Concern After Iran "Warhead" Report

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, one of the biggest problems facing the Middle East and the entire world is the nuclear development program that Iran is involved in right now.

The International Atomic Energy Agency in just the last few days has said that Iran is probably developing a nuclear warhead that they could use at some point in the future as their nuclear development program continues to expand. They have 3,000 or 4,000 centrifuges over there refining weapons-grade nuclear material right now.

The reason this is important is because it not only affects the United States and our capability to provide energy for this country that will be very important for our economy down the road, but our biggest ally and friend in the entire Middle East is Israel, and Israel right now does not yet have the capability to hit a major underground nuclear development site that may be developing a nuclear warhead that could destroy Tel-Aviv, could destroy much of Israel and kill millions of Israelis who are friends of ours and great allies.

It is extremely important that this administration do everything they can to support the Government of Israel in order to make sure that they have the capability and the ability to stop Iran's nuclear development program when it starts to imperil and jeopardize the entire Middle East.

Our energy sources that come from there, maybe 35 percent of our entire energy is dependent on the Middle East. If we have a conflagration over there, it is really going to hurt us, but it will hurt our great ally Israel even more. That is why we need to tell Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that we support him, and we are going to give him the material and the equipment necessary to deal with Iran should they continue down this path, and that means the bunker busting bombs that will be able to go down 50, 75, 100 feet underground or maybe 150 feet into a mountainside to knock out a nuclear development program if it imperils the existence of Israel or threatens the entire Middle East.

I can't stress how important this is. The leader of Iran, Mr. Ahmadinejad, has said numerous times that he wants to see Israel wiped off the face of the Earth. They are developing a nuclear weapons program, and now the IAEA is saying that they are developing a nuclear warhead that will be able to strike should they be able to use their missile program. So we have to pay real attention to what is going on over there and give Israel the ability to do what is necessary, and we should support them in every way possible. If we don't do that, we are going to rue the day that they finish that nuclear development program in Iran.

Bibi Netanyahu is going to be here before too long speaking here in the United States. I hope that the President will reach out to him and say, We are going to give you all the tools necessary to be able to stop the nuclear risk that Iran poses over there if we have to do it. The United States and President Obama should work with Mr. Netanyahu to make sure that we get that job done. We certainly don't need a terrorist state like Iran developing a nuclear weapons program with a delivery system that could deliver a nuclear warhead.

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