Standing up to the Iranian regime

By U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer
R-Nebraska

This week, I want to address what most Americans have been watching on national television: the United States’ recent action against the Iranian regime’s nuclear weapons program. I also want to detail the grave and growing threat Iran poses to Americans.

As chair of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces, I oversee our military’s nuclear and strategic forces, arms control and non-proliferation programs, and ballistic missile defense. This portfolio gives me a deep understanding of the danger Tehran’s nuclear ambitions pose to our national security.

Iran has repeatedly called for “Death to America” – this has been chanted by the nation’s leaders and their proxies in the streets, written into the nation’s doctrine, and etched into its strategy since 1979.

Furthermore, the Iranian regime’s hatred for America has been enforced with bloodshed. Iran’s fingerprints are all over some of the deadliest attacks on U.S. forces. In 1983, Iranian-backed Hezbollah killed 241 American service members in the Beirut barracks bombing. In 1996, 19 more Americans were killed in the Khobar Towers bombing. During the Global War on Terror, Iran’s Quds Force supplied advanced improvised explosive devices that maimed and killed American troops in Iraq. And today, U.S. servicemembers are still under fire from Iranian proxies in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen.

This is not history. These attacks are part of a long, coordinated strategy to weaken America, and undermine our allies.

We know that Iran has stockpiled uranium enriched to 60 percent. For comparison, nuclear fuel for civilian power plants is enriched to just 3.67 percent. Most medical isotopes use 20 percent. The only use for uranium enriched to 60 percent is to get closer to weapons-grade material.

And Iran was doing this in fortified, underground bunkers using advanced centrifuges. That’s not a civilian power program; that’s a weapons program. No country in the world enriches uranium to 60 percent without the intent to build a bomb. Iran’s actions were not benign. They were a red line. And that line was about to be crossed.

That’s why the Trump administration took decisive action and launched an operation to target and severely degrade three of Iran’s critical nuclear sites. I am grateful to the brave service members who carried out this mission with extraordinary professionalism and precision. Their efforts sent a message not just to Iran, but to the world: the United States will not allow this regime to obtain a nuclear weapon. Not now. Not ever.

Iran must come to the negotiating table. A nuclear-armed Iran would permanently destabilize the region, threaten Israel’s existence, and spark an arms race. We’ve come dangerously close to that nightmare scenario.

This past week’s military operation bought time, but now we must work toward a real and lasting agreement where Iran ends its enrichment program, ceases its proxy attacks, and recognizes that the world will no longer tolerate its aggression. Until then, we must remain clear-eyed and ready to act.

Terrorist regimes cannot be appeased. They must be deterred, disrupted, and when necessary, defeated. Iran poses a real danger to American lives, and I will continue to ensure that our armed forces have every tool they need to stop it.