We must get tough on Iran's nuke development

With all the recent focus on Iraq and Afghanistan, another Middle Eastern country has quietly and rapidly become a serious and immediate national security threat. Recent actions by the Islamic Republic of Iran are both dangerous and provocative to the international community, and these actions require an international response.

A little over two weeks ago, President Obama announced plans to terminate the Eastern European missile defense plan that specifically targeted the threat of Iranian missile attacks. It is little surprise that Iran responded with a show of force, launching several short- and medium-range missiles. The medium-range Shahab-3 and Sejil-2 missiles are capable of reaching Israel, parts of Europe, and several American military bases in the Persian Gulf.

Or as Abdullah Araqi, a senior Revolutionary Guards official puts it, "Iranian missiles are able to target any place that threatens Iran."

On the heels of these missile tests, Iranian officials disclosed the existence of a second, hidden nuclear facility capable of enriching uranium. This facility has been under construction for some time. It was only disclosed to the International Atomic Energy Agency by Iran as a bargaining chip in order to preempt the facility's disclosure by the United States during last week's U.N. Security Council talks in Geneva. Estimates indicate that when the new facility is coupled with the country's previously identified enrichment plant at Natchez, Iran could fuel a nuclear bomb in about seven months.

Despite repeated promises from Iranian leaders that its nuclear plants are for peaceful purposes, their actions have not borne this out. Building covert enrichment plants shielded from international inspectors points directly to an Iranian aspiration for nuclear weapons capability. If Iran truly wanted to construct nuclear power plants with nonviolent objectives, it would open these facilities up to inspectors and curb their dangerous rhetoric.

Unfortunately, Iranian leaders have done neither. Last Thursday, Iran's top nuclear negotiator met with members of the U.N. Security Council. Little, as expected, resulted from these talks.

The time for talking and negotiating is over. The U.N. has been negotiating with Iran for years, and the country continues to defy international law. The global community must act to ensure that Iran does not achieve nuclear weapons capabilities now or in the future. I agree with the President that "there is no substitute for Iran complying with its international obligations regarding its nuclear program."

Congress has taken several recent steps to put pressure on Iran in order to effect a change in its ambitions. Along with 116 of my colleagues, I am cosponsoring the Iran Threat Reduction Act that would place stringent sanctions on Iran until the U.S. President certifies that Iran has verifiably dismantled its weapons of mass destruction programs and ceased its support for international terrorism.

In addition, over 300 members of Congress have joined in co-sponsoring legislation authorizing specific sanctions against Iranian petroleum products. I have strongly urged the passage of these two laws, which will directly impact the capacity of Iran to compete economically and will curtail the country's nuclear weapons abilities.

Though these laws have broad support in Congress and in the Oval Office, we must continue to work with our allies across the world to impose similar sanctions against the dangerous Iranian regime. Without an international effort, sanctions will become watered down and hollow. We may then end up with a situation that no one wants to see: a nuclear-armed Iran.

I implore the leaders of our partner nations to join the United States in effecting a meaningful change in Iran's nuclear weapons objective by imposing effective sanctions and demanding access to Iranian nuclear facilities. Only when we are assured of Iran's capabilities can we ensure stability in the region and across the world.

¦

Jeff Miller, a Republican from Chumuckla, is Florida District 1's voice in the U.S. House of Representatives. His Washington office can be reached at (202) 225-4136. His Pensacola office can be reached toll-free at (866) 367-1614.