Senator Kirk Statement on the Iran Nuclear Agreement

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) issued the following statement today after the United States and other world powers announced the completion of a nuclear agreement with Iran:

“I am gravely concerned that the nuclear agreement will condemn the next generation to living with an Iranian nuclear power in the Persian Gulf and ultimately endanger the security of the United States, Israel, and other regional allies over the long term.

“This agreement will enrich and empower Iran, the world’s foremost sponsor of terrorism, because it will dismantle the international sanctions regime against Iran, give Iran back over $100 billion in frozen assets, and lift a U.N. arms embargo that has banned Iran from buying and selling conventional weapons and ballistic missiles.

“Worse, this agreement will pave Iran’s path to nuclear weapons because it requires Iran to take temporary and reversible steps that keep it at the threshold of acquiring nuclear weapons, and will allow Iran to obstruct and veto inspections at suspect nuclear facilities instead of imposing zero-notice nuclear inspections anytime and at any place in Iran, including military sites.”

Background on Iranian Terrorism and Sanctions Relief:

• U.S. Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper described Iran as “the foremost state sponsor of terrorism” in a letter to Senators on June 3, 2015.
• General Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that “under no circumstances should we relieve pressure on Iran relative to ballistic missile capabilities and arms trafficking” in a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on July 7, 2015.
• The Wall Street Journal reported that the “administration estimates Iran has between $100 billion and $140 billion of its oil revenue frozen in offshore accounts as a result of sanctions” on April 17, 2015.
• President Obama said that “Iran’s defense budget is $30 billion” in an April 2015 interview with The New York Times.
• Steven Heydemann, who until recently served as Vice President for Applied Research on Conflict at the Defense Department’s U.S. Institute for Peace, estimated that Iran’s total support to Syria’s Assad regime amounts to “between $15 and $20 billion annually.”
• In 2010 report, the Defense Department estimated that Iran “provides roughly $100-200 million per year in funding to support” Hezbollah.