Ambassador James Jeffrey, former U.S. Ambassador to Iraq warned the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday that the Iranian regime remains a threat to destabilize the region and that a nuclear agreement would not signal “a change of heart about its ultimate hegemonic goals.”
Ambassador James Jeffrey told lawmakers that “the agreement cannot be considered outside the context of Iran’s record of destabilization in the region.”
“Iran’s behavior in the region is profoundly troubling to many states. Either an Iranian nuclear weapons capability, or an Iran politically empowered by an agreement that stops it just short of such a capability, would pose extraordinary new threats to a region already under stress, and undermine the above U.S. vital interests,” he said.
He described the idea that a nuclear deal will transform the regime into a responsible state actor as being without foundation.
“Iran is a revolutionary power with hegemonic aspirations. In other words, it is a country seeking to assert its dominance in the region and it will not play by the rules . . . Iran, however, has brazenly defied (the) international order and continues to expand its reach,” he said.
He added later, “It begins with the idea do we think that signing this agreement is going to either flip Iran into being a status quo power in the region or serve as some kind of encouragement that that will happen over the longer term? I see no evidence of that given Iran’s past and given its ideological and religious role in the region and the very strong efforts it has made . . . to have a hegemonic position in the region.”