At a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing before the Congressional recess, Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) spoke about Iran's nuclear program.
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00:00Thank you, Mr. Keating. I now recognize for five minutes the gentleman from Pennsylvania, Mr. Perry.
00:07Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Ladies and gentlemen, I appreciate your time here today.
00:12Why don't we just get real about this conversation for once.
00:17Iran is a country that is run by a criminal terrorist regime.
00:24That's what Iran is. We're talking about having negotiations with them and so on and so forth.
00:29I guess we've got to. But North Korea is a criminal, essentially terrorist regime.
00:35When you look at what it does to its own citizens, it doesn't because it can't afford to export its terrorism.
00:40But Iran does. And has continued to do so.
00:44And even with the fact notwithstanding that 80% of Hezbollah's drones and missiles have been taken out.
00:53Assad's regime is gone. Tehran's missile factories have been devastated.
00:59The Houthis are finally under some real fire.
01:03Iran still exists. And we're talking like there's something.
01:08Well, let me ask you. You guys are the experts. Mr. Rule.
01:11Is Iran going to give up its nuclear program? Have they ever shown any interest whatsoever?
01:17But before I before you answer that question, is there any question in anybody's mind on the panel that their nuclear program is specifically for weapons utilization?
01:27It's a weapons program. It's not for power or any medical research.
01:31It's for it's for aggressive military action. Is there any question about that?
01:38Is there any dissension from that?
01:41Frankly, sir, the question is the I think the best way to putting putting is Iran has a civilian nuclear program.
01:47And it has kept open the option for a military.
01:51Why do they need to enrich so much for a civilian program?
01:54Not only do they not need to enrich, it's a great question.
01:57They are now focusing the enrichment aspect of their entire nuclear program on non-civilian enrichment.
02:04So they need to enrich between three and five percent.
02:07It's a weapons program.
02:08If it's a civilian, they're enriching at 60 percent, which is only military grade.
02:13In essence, they're shaping their entire civilian nuclear program to make it look as if they're aiming for a military program.
02:21It has no civilian uses. This is array, this architecture they're creating.
02:26That doesn't mean they've decided to make a bomb.
02:28And we've heard direct the DNI.
02:30But don't Gabbard say they're not doing this.
02:32But facts are facts in that regard.
02:35Maybe I should have added they are a lying criminal terrorist regime, right?
02:41They lie about things.
02:42They use diplomacy to their advantage because the rest of the, you know, to the point of the JCPOA, the rest of the world are allies.
02:50Followed President Obama, who didn't want to see a nuclear Iran during his term, but didn't mind seeing one 15 years later when he was no longer the president.
03:01It didn't stop their nuclear production, their military nuclear capability.
03:05It just delayed it. That's all it did.
03:08Nobody here wants to acknowledge it.
03:10But to my other point, have they ever shown any interest whatsoever in getting rid of this nuclear program for whatever way you want to describe it?
03:17No. And in fact, it is.
03:19No. It is extremely.
03:21Their red lines have been not giving up industrial enrichment, not closing any facilities and not giving up on R&D.
03:28And it's very unlikely they will give up on any of those red lines without significant pressure and the threat of military action, unfortunately.
03:38Ms. Jungman, you disagree with that?
03:41I do not disagree.
03:43Ms. Stroll.
03:44Okay, so what are we talking about here? We're talking about like we can have some conversation that's going to get them to give it up, even while we all know in the room they ain't giving it up, right?
03:55Ms. Jungman, they got, what, 300 ghost ships running around selling their oil, which is sanctioned, but they sell it to the Chinese and whoever they want.
04:04And where does that money go to the people of Iran?
04:07Look, they're probably wonderful.
04:09I'm sure there are wonderful people in Iran that don't want to live under this yoke of terrorism.
04:14But the money's not going to them, is it? It's going to who?
04:17Ms. No, the money from Iran's oil, it goes right back to its terrorist proxies.
04:22Yeah, it's terrorist proxies, the Quds Force, probably to their nuclear weapons program.
04:28Ladies and gentlemen, all we're doing is delaying the inevitable, right?
04:34Iran, like, we're acting like we can talk our way out of having this cancer get worse by just having the cancer kind of settle down for a little bit.
04:44There's a cancer in the Middle East. There's a cancer on the globe.
04:48The name in this case is Iran and the leadership in Iran. That's the cancer.
04:54We better get real about what we're talking about, because they're not going to give it up willingly, no matter what the negotiation is.
05:01And I just wish that we'd quit fooling around and acting like the IAEA is going to tell us something.
05:08I mean, they wouldn't even allow an American inspector on the team.
05:11They wouldn't allow inspectors to visit military sites. Who are we kidding here?
05:16I'm sorry, I didn't have any questions for our yield.
05:19Thank you, Mr. Perry.