Israel Matzav: 'This administration like Neville Chamberlain is yielding a large and bloody conflict in the Middle East involving Iranian nuclear weapons'

Friday, November 15, 2013

'This administration like Neville Chamberlain is yielding a large and bloody conflict in the Middle East involving Iranian nuclear weapons'

Here's a full transcript of Senator Mark Kirk (R-Il)'s remarks after the Kerry-Sherman presentation to the Senate Banking Committee earlier this week. It's brutal.

Sen. Kirk: …that it was fairly anti-Israeli that I was supposed to disbelieve everything that the Israelis had just told me. And I don’t. I think the Israelis probably have a pretty good intelligence service.

Question: What did the Israelis just tell you?

Sen. Kirk: They told us that the total changes proposed set back the program about 24 days.

Question: Oh wow. And in exchange they get what?

Sen. Kirk: They get billions in gold.

Question: Billions in gold and also humanitarian stuff?

Sen. Kirk: What I’m going to start doing is add up the financial incentives and divide it by the number of Iranians and seeing how much money per Iranian is it. I asked the Secretary if you add it all, how much per Iranian citizen is this? He didn’t know. The one thing I did, I started questioning Wendy Sherman about her record on North Korea and she surprisingly defended it to me.

Question: Really? What’s her defense? I’m wearing my North Korea flag pin today.

Sen. Kirk: There is no defense. After Wendy led the effort to give North Korea nuclear reactors and food, her record on North Korea is a total failure and an embarrassment to her service.

Question: And you think that speaks to her handling of the Iran…?

Sen. Kirk: Yea, she started to defend using very precise legal words, saying “we haven’t had any plutonium production in..”

Question: So you’re saying that the administration is not representing…?

Sen. Kirk: The point that Wendy wants you to forget her service on North Korea. You shouldn’t allow her to.

Question: Okay I won’t. What about, do you think the administration has lost credibility on this?

Sen. Kirk: A lot, very low credibility, I would say.

Question: What about sanctions on the defense bill?

Sen. Kirk: I’ll use every method I have as a Senator.

Question: Do you think the banking committee will move forward?

Sen. Kirk: I think today is the day in which I witnessed a feature of nuclear war in the Middle East in the future someday that will be part of our children’s heritage. This administration like Neville Chamberlain is yielding a large and bloody conflict in the Middle East involving Iranian nuclear weapons that will now be part of our children’s future. And the best way to prevent that from happening is to continue sanctions which Secretary Kerry goes on and on about how effective. What I told Bob Menendez was the administration is sitting at a negotiating table that was built by the Congress. Without the Congress having tough sanctions, the Iranians would walk away.

Question: Do you think there’s the votes in the Senate to attach Iran sanctions to the defense authorization bill?

Sen. Kirk: I do in fact. I think overwhelmingly if it was given a vote 90% of the Senate would vote for it as they did last time. All we would do is remind Senators that every single Senator voted for Menendez-Kirk.

Question: What made you move to the conclusion that we witnessed the beginning of the potential nuclear war in the Middle East?

Sen. Kirk: That the administration is not going to act in the best way to prevent nuclear war in the Middle East. Right when the Iranians are…you know, how do you define an Iranian moderate? It’s an Iranian who is out of bullets or out of money.

Question: What was the exact source for the 24 days, can you elaborate?

Sen. Kirk: That was the Israelis, the Israelis gave that to me this morning. And the administration very disappointingly said discount what the Israelis say and I think that was wrong as a policy matter. I think the Israelis have a very good intelligence service.

Read the whole thing (there's more about the presentation).

Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Iran sanctions regime, Iranian nuclear threat, John Kerry, Mark Kirk, North Korea, Wendy Sherman