Franks: Iran No Longer Hiding Its Intention to Pursue Nuclear Weapons

For Immediate Release
Contact: Bethany Haley or Ben Carnes at 202-225-4576

Franks: Iran No Longer Hiding Its Intention to Pursue Nuclear Weapons

"Obama Administration is forfeiting a window of opportunity we will never get back"

April 22, 2010 - Congressman Trent Franks (AZ-02) gave the following remarks today in response to statements made yesterday by Iran's supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. He said, "We have repeatedly said that we do not intend to use weapons of mass destruction, but the Iranian people do not surrender to these threats and will force those who make such threats to come to their knees."

"Over the last several years Iran has shifted its stories with each well documented new discovery about its enrichment efforts by the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency]. First it claimed it had no centrifuge program at all; then it claimed it had done only a limited amount of centrifuge testing, and now we know that Iran in fact possesses not a few but thousands of centrifuges.

"All along, Iran's leaders have claimed that it was enriching uranium for solely peaceful purposes-- to produce nuclear energy and not nuclear weapons. And yet again, Iran's story has changed. Just yesterday, Iran's supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, stated that they do not intend to use weapons of mass destruction. No longer does he deny that they are seeking to make such weapons.

"The world's last remaining window to prevent nuclear terrorism from becoming a reality for this and future generations is rapidly closing.

"If the Obama Administration is going to take action to stop such a scenario from coming to pass, it must cease sending mixed signals and take swift, decisive action-- with or without the support of China and Russia. If they do not, they will have to answer to our children for forfeiting a window of opportunity we will never get back."


Congressman Franks is serving his fourth term in the U.S. House of Representatives, and is a member of the Committee on Armed Services, Strategic Forces Subcommittee, Oversight & Investigations Subcommittee, Military Readiness Subcommittee, Committee on the Judiciary, Constitution Subcommittee, and is Ranking Member on the Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law.