Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) on Monday warned that a nuclear armed Iranian regime is the ‘gravest threat’ to U.S. national security.
“The gravest threat to our national security is a nuclear-armed Iran, and this man, Ayatollah Khamenei,” Cotton said from the Senate floor.
The Arkansas Republican referred to a speech Ali Khamenei gave over the weekend in honor of Nowruz, the Persian New Year.
The crowd chanted “death to America” as Khamenei spoke. “What was his response to that chant? He said, ‘Yes, certainly, death to America,’ ” Cotton said. ” ‘Death to America.’ Remember this is the leader whom with the United States is negotiating today.”
Senator Cotton has been a vocal critic of the international negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program. He spearheaded an open letter, also signed by 47 Republican senators, to Iran’s leaders that suggested that any deal could be overturned after President Obama leaves office in 2017.
Obama released his own video message last week in honor of Nowruz. In that video, the president pressed Iranian officials to take “the best opportunity in decades” to bolster the U.S.-Iranian relationship by accepting a deal to roll back the country’s nuclear program.
Cotton said Obama’s remarks in his video message last week in honor of Nowrwere were “ill-advised.”
“No president should legitimize such a regime,” he said. “Evil men rarely cloak their wicked intent, and I urge my fellow senators and American to pay attention.
“When someone chants, ‘Yes, certainly, death to America,’ we should take him at his word, and we shouldn’t put him on the path to a nuclear bomb.”
