Washington – U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand today announced her decision to support the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action as agreed to by the P5+1 and Iran.
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Senator Gillibrand discussed her support in a post published on Medium, writing that while imperfect, “if we reject this deal, we do not have a viable alternative for preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons,” which has been and remains the United States’ primary goal.
Her post is copied below.
Why I’m Supporting an Imperfect Iran Deal
Beginning in 2010, I helped champion in Congress an aggressive and punitive series of sanctions against Iran because we faced an Iranian nuclear program that was spinning unchecked and out of control. The Iranian regime with a nuclear weapon posed – then and now – an existential threat to the State of Israel, and dangerously threatens our own national security interests.
Bottom line: Iran possessing a nuclear weapon would be a game-changing event that cannot and will not be allowed. That was true then – and it remains true today.
The question before us now is whether this deal is the best way to reach our goal, or whether the best way forward is continued Congressional sanctions, even as other nations around the world begin to lift their own. To date, the sanctions the U.S. led the global community to impose worked: they crippled Iran’s economy and compelled its leaders to face us at the negotiating table.
By including China, Russia, and our European partners, this crushing economic pressure, combined with diplomacy, has produced an unprecedented combination of ways to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. Just as important, inspectors will have unprecedented access to Iran’s facilities, so that we can better understand Iran’s capabilities, stop a program currently designed to produce a nuclear weapon, and be better prepared to detect any covert activity. This deal does not take any military options off the table for the next president if Iran fails to live up to its end of the agreement. In fact, we will have better intelligence as a result of this deal should military action become unavoidable. But rejecting it and leaving only U.S. sanctions in place without the essential support of the international community will move us closer to military confrontation. Sanctions worked when the world community came together, choking off the Iranian economy. In a meeting earlier this week when I questioned the ambassadors of our P5+1 allies, it also became clear that if we reject this deal, going back to the negotiation table is not an option.
I have decided to support this deal after closely reading the agreement, participating in multiple classified briefings, questioning Energy Secretary Moniz and other officials, consulting independent arms control experts, and talking with many constituents who both support and oppose this deal. Here is why I believe this imperfect deal is worthy of Congressional approval:
First, Iran made essential concessions in the deal. After the failure of the 2004 Paris Agreement, Iran was defiant; it refused to negotiate seriously, it was uncooperative with international weapons inspectors, and it vowed never to cave to pressure and dismantle its nuclear production, which increased dramatically during the Bush years.
Now, Iran has signed on to a sufficiently verifiable and enforceable deal that cuts off all paths to a bomb and has its entire nuclear supply chain closely monitored for years to come. A deal like this, widely supported by independent nuclear arms control experts, was unimaginable just a few years ago.
Second, this deal will provide international nuclear inspectors with access that they otherwise would not have had – and never will have if we reject this agreement. We will begin robust worldwide monitoring of Iran’s nuclear supply chain – uranium production, plants that convert uranium into a centrifuge-ready gas, centrifuges, uranium stockpiles, and spent nuclear fuel that contains plutonium – and inspectors will retain the right to request access to suspicious sites forever.
Third, while I’m skeptical that Iran won’t try to deceive us and our partners in this agreement, we’ll be in a better position to catch those attempts due to the monitoring and verification mechanisms that this deal secures. If Iran pursues a nuclear weapon, international inspectors and intelligence operations will know faster than ever before. We will then be able to snap back all of the American and United Nations sanctions, even unilaterally, and all options – including military action – will be on the table.
Iran will still be disruptive in the Middle East and fund terrorist activities. This regime will continue to deny Israel’s right to exist, the Quds Force will still be listed as a terrorist organization, and Iran will continue to exacerbate tensions with our allies in the region. But Iran would be exponentially more dangerous to Israel and the entire region with a nuclear weapon.
Israel’s security and America’s national security interests are fundamentally aligned. Congress must continue its unwavering commitment to ensuring that Israel retains a qualitative military edge in the region – an effort I will continue to steadfastly support. I have not only consistently voted for Israel’s full foreign assistance package, but have also added funds for innovative and effective defense projects, such as Iron Dome. I will fight in Congress for a new Israel defense aid package, because we must continue to fund the new technologies of tomorrow that will keep families safe from conventional missile and terrorist attacks.
There are legitimate and serious concerns about this deal. For example, I would have liked to see a period shorter than 24 days to resolve disputes over access for inspectors. The U.N. embargoes on the sales of arms and ballistic weapons to Iran should have remained in place permanently, instead of lapsing after five and eight years. Hostages remain in Iranian custody. We will have to work hard to fight Iran’s malign efforts to wreak havoc in the region. While all of these issues are important, no issue matters more than ensuring that the Iranian regime does not have a nuclear weapon at its disposal.
If we reject this deal, we do not have a viable alternative for preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. Without a deal, and without inspectors on the ground, we will be left in the dark as Iran resumes its pursuit of a nuclear weapon, with only months to go before it could enrich enough fissile material for a bomb. Without a deal, our options will be limited to insufficient unilateral sanctions, an invasion with yet another massive and costly land war in the Middle East, or a bombing campaign that offers nothing more than short-term gain under the best-case scenario.
Our goal has been, and remains, to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. We have far more ability to achieve that outcome if we approve this deal.
Of course she is. She’s a farshultina socialist liberal democrat who stands with Omamzer ymsh for everything. Why not here??
“international nuclear inspectors ” non American inspectors. I guess Aguda people wasted their time on this voiceless rubberstamp of a “senator” who was appointed not elected by David Patterson of all people.
What a shock, a democrat supporting the deal. Her reasons are nonsensical, but hey, the party always comes first.
when you vote,vote these traitors out of office
get rid of all these liberal/socialist /democrats once and for all.who stand for everything that is against the torah,and show up at Agudah dinners,and yeshiva and mosdos dinners as “friends”
Why I wont be supporting our puppet of the white house
Senator,
If the NY Post gave me the opportunity to write my own oped. It would be headlined “Why I will not support Senator Gillibrand anymore”. Neither will my friends and family.
Look at the bright side, hopefully you will be able to retire soon. Dont worry, you will get your fat federal pension and of course Obamacare too.
SHAME ON HER – s/b voted out of office – doesn’t represent the constituent of NY
We will remember her cowardes at election time!
Time to show this shiksa the door.lets see which macher or machers are going to have a picture with her in the next election. How quickly we will forget.
Everyone needs to quiet down the rhetoric and stop with the hysterics.
Being pro this deal is not anti Semitic…..some people believe that this deal is truly the best way forward.
And You Need To Respect That.
Attention New Yorkers! Do you vote DemocRat??
Did you vote for Krispy Jellybrand for Senator?
Did you vote for Hussein Obummer?? Twice??
You are Idiots!!!!!
And now the DemocRats will make fools out of you once again because you have no seichel to see through their lies!!
Vote Republican.
While I am certainly upset that she is against the deal I do think it’s much more appalling that a day or two after meeting with the Agudah she announces that. To be honest being that she is a woman she has never been allowed to speak at an Agudah function let’s see what schumer who speaks at every Agudah dinner does now.
well obviously you have no common sense!! if you support this deal you are clearly anti semitic its equilavent to giving the nazis gas for the chambers we jews have to wake up before its too late