Many members of US House and Senate reacted with skepticism Monday to an extension of Iran nuclear talks and called for new sanctions against the regime in Tehran.
Senator Mark Kirk said in a statement: “Now more than ever, it is critical that Congress enacts sanctions that give Iran s mullahs no choice but to dismantle their illicit nuclear program.”
“Congress will not give Iran more time to build a nuclear bomb,” he said
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce said Obama should allow new sanctions to serve as increased leverage on the Iranian regime.
“This seven-month extension should be used to tighten the economic vice on Tehran — already suffering from falling energy prices — to force the concessions that Iran has been resisting,” Royce said in a statement.
U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations said “extending talks with Iran will not achieve the goal of a nuclear-weapon-free Iran” and called for increasing pressure on the Iranian regime.
Rubio pointed to the regime’s “track record as the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism” and abuses of Iranian citizens. As shown by this latest round of negotiations, he says, it also appears that Iran’s leadership remains unwilling to give up their nuclear ambitions.
Congressman Peter Roskam said: “Extending these ill-conceived negotiations for another six months will only buy the mullahs more time to develop a nuclear weapons capability.”
“It is time we stop this nonsensical process and reinstate the crippling economic sanctions that brought the radical Iranian regime to the negotiating table in the first place,” he said.
