News Max- 01 Feb 2017 06:27 PM, ET- House Republicans introduced a bill Wednesday for new sanctions against Iran after President Donald Trump’s national security adviser Michael Flynn put the nation “on notice” for a reported ballistic missile test – a bill that, former ambassador John Bolton said, vows: “Won’t let Iran get to nuclear weapons.”
“Iran has made a mockery of the international community with its missile program, support for terrorism, and human rights abuses,” Rep. Peter J. Roskam, R-Ill., wrote in a statement.
“Just this past weekend, the Islamic Republic conducted a ballistic missile test in violation of the U.N. Security Council. The United States will no longer stand idly by and allow the Mullahs to flout international law and threaten the peaceful coexistence of nations with its reckless, belligerent behavior.”
Flynn told reporters Wednesday “Iran is now feeling emboldened,” and the Trump administration “condemns such actions by Iran that undermine security, prosperity and stability throughout and beyond the Middle East that puts American lives at risk… we are officially putting Iran on notice.”
Iran’s missile test “failed” on re-entry, something former U.N. ambassador Bolton told Fox News’ “Your World” with Neil Cavuto signals a nuclear warhead test.
“This failed missile test that provoked the legislation, Pentagon sources are saying that the failure of the test came at the reentry stage,” Bolton told Fox News. “Well, you know, missiles that launch communications and weather satellites don’t have reentry to worry about. What you have reentry is for a nuclear weapon under a nose cone.
“So, the fact they were testing at the reentry level shows exactly what the Iranian missile program is for: to deliver nuclear weapons.”
Bolton has long spoken out against President Barack Obama’s controversial dealings with Iran, which reportedly included paying that nation more than $10 billion in gold, cash, and assets since 2013.
“This deal is a sham, a danger to the United States, Israel and the Arab friends in the Middle East,” Bolton said. “The sooner we get rid of it the better.”
Flynn’s statement Wednesday and the ensuing legislation proposal signal a movement in policy with the new administration, which is tougher on Iran in the Middle East, Bolton said.
“Michael Flynn’s statement is extremely significant,” Bolton told Cavuto. “It says for the first time in an official statement in about eight years that the United States is on to Iran’s game. And it does put them on notice that this administration is not the last administration, in case they hadn’t noticed it.
” …The legislation that’s been introduced in the House of Representatives couldn’t come at a better moment, and if the Iranians don’t like it, let them pull out of the deal.”
Cavuto noted Iran pulling out of the deal would not impact all the billions the U.S. has paid to Iran under President Obama.
“Well, that’s one of the reasons this was such a poorly negotiated deal: The Iranians got the benefits up front and their compliance is due at the back end,” Bolton responded. “But the fact is, I don’t believe they have ever given up their desire to have a deliverable nuclear weapon, and I think they’re violating this deal right now.
“So, there’s a lot of different ways you can to approach it. But the political significance is ending the deal, sending the message unequivocally to the rest of the world, ‘We won’t let Iran get to nuclear weapons.'”
