Nuclear Iran Prevention Act of 2013
Floor Speech
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Mr. MORAN. I thank the gentleman from Minnesota, my friend.
Mr. Speaker, 29 prominent policymakers and experts who understand Iran and international relations, which includes former CENTCOM Commander, Ambassador Tom Pickering, stated in a letter to President Obama just 2 weeks ago: ``No further sanctions should be imposed or considered at this time.''
There were 131 bipartisan Representatives who also urged the President to test the opportunity presented by Iran's recent election to avoid actions that could delegitimize the democratic election that just took place in Iran, because the fact is that the Iranian people rejected the very cleric of government that we have all opposed that has been defined by hostile actions against the United States. In fact, when Mr. Rouhani was running, the people of Iran knew he was a former nuclear negotiator, and he promised greater nuclear transparency and to pursue, in his words, peace and reconciliation with the outside world.
Isn't that just what we are looking for?
I can't imagine we are looking for another war of choice, that we want to escalate the rhetoric. This is the best opportunity we have had in at least 8 years, if not more. Why throw that away?
Now, some will say, ``Well, what we do in the House doesn't really matter. The Senate isn't going to do anything,'' but that's a nuance. We may understand why the House is acting, but the rest of the world doesn't likely understand what's going on here.
The fact is that this bill empowers the very hard-liners who are the problem. The Iranian people are extraordinarily diverse. In fact, they used to be America's best friend in the Muslim world, and they just rejected a government that represented all of the things we oppose, and they did it democratically. I can't imagine that we have to operate in such a vacuum that we are going to continue to impose sanctions, that we are going to take away the President's ability to exercise leverage in those negotiations, and that, in fact, we are even going to lay it on further by taking away the exemption for necessary food and medicine.
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Mr. MORAN. This is destructive because it punishes the Iranian people and empowers the hard-liners. We have no problem with punishing the clerical government and many of the people in the military. They don't represent our values, but we want the Iranian people to seize democracy, to represent our values, to enter into negotiations. We've got to be able to bring about a more peaceful and productive world.
So I would strongly urge this House to hold off. Let the new President at least be inaugurated. Let him at least take over. Let's see what we can do. Let's not act so prematurely and destructively.
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