Lankford Secures Priority to Prevent Iran from Obtaining A Nuclear Weapon

CLICK HERE to watch Lankford’s remarks on YouTube.

CLICK HERE to watch on Rumble.

WASHINGTON, DC – Senator James Lankford (R-OK) spoke on the Senate floor today on his Motion to Instruct (MTI) conferees to the so-called “China bill” that would require any deal with Iran to address Chinese purchases of Iranian oil, along with Iran’s nuclear proliferation, ballistic missile development, and support for terrorism. The MTI would also prohibit the president from lifting the Foreign Terrorist Organization (FT)_ designation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the military of the world’s leading State Sponsor of Terrorism (SST). The MTI passed by a vote of 62-33.

Lankford is the lead sponsor of the Iran Sanctions Preservation Act, which is supported by former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and would prohibit any president from lifting sanctions on Iran’s energy industry or financial services sector unless the Iranian regime ends its nuclear program, support for terrorism, or use of ballistic missiles.

As the White House currently works to reinstate the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), or the “Iran Nuclear Deal,” Lankford continues to call out the Administration that re-entering the deal only helps Iran become a nuclear power and creates additional national security concerns for Americans at home and abroad. Lankford and 48 Republican Senators came together to tell the Biden Administration that they will not support the revived Iran Deal, which, according to public reports, will weaken sanctions and lessen restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program.

Lankford’s amendment was support by the America First Policy Institute, Christians United for Israel, and the Heritage Foundation. 

Transcript: 

We’re about to go to conference on what we’re affectionately just calling the ‘China bill.’ But this bill does not address China’s practice of purchasing and stockpiling sanctioned Iranian oil to the black market. The procurement spike by China’s directly correlated with the spike in terrorist activities by Iran and its proxies in the Middle East. Iran is laundering these petroleum products and illicitly transferring the oil at sea to Iranian tankers in foreign-flagged vessels. Three-quarters of this oil is ultimately exported to China which purchased 310 million barrels of oil from Iran last year. All this is happening while Iran is actually negotiating directly with Iran on our behalf in Vienna. 

This particular Motion to Instruct goes straight at this illicit activity from Iran that’s facilitating the terror activities and also addresses the designation that Iran is asking if they’re going to negotiate with the Biden Administration on the Iran nuclear deal, Iran is specifically asking that they get a lift of the Foreign Terrorist Organization on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. That is the group that was attacking our troops in Iraq and facilitating their death. We need to address this and take it off the table so that Iran does not get by with this and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps does not. I urge a yes vote on my Motion to Instruct.

###