House Foreign Affairs Committee, Washington, 25 Jan 2012 – U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, released the following statement on the President’s State of the Union address:
“The recent sanctions by the Treasury Department against a major Iranian financial institution are welcome, but much more is needed before it’s too late to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran. Just last week, the International Atomic Energy Agency reiterated that the evidence points to Iran’s active pursuit of a nuclear weapon, and an ex-Israeli intelligence chief stated that Iran already has all the components to build a nuclear bomb. The President and his Administration must understand that the time for dialogue, coddling, and indecisiveness is long over. The President must utilize the full range of tools that Congress has provided and bring to bear the full force of U.S. sanctions against Tehran.
“The President’s treatment of Israel, including calling for Israel to return to the indefensible pre-1967 lines and make further unilateral concessions to Ramallah, can hardly be called an ‘iron-clad’ commitment to Israel’s security. And at this critical time, as the Palestinian leadership threatens to again abandon direct negotiations and continue its dangerous statehood scheme at the UN, the President’s silence on Palestinian unilateralism is deafening.
“While the President claims that our ties in the Americas are deeper, he fails to specifically mention emerging threats in the Western Hemisphere or the ongoing assaults on democracy in the region. It seems that the President is not troubled by dictators in Latin America.
“A perfect example is the Administration’s record of concessions and overtures to the Castro regime. In Cuba, where the human rights situation has only grown worse and the regime is a designated state-sponsor of terrorism, the Administration has pursued policies which will benefit the regime economically. Instead of reaching out to the tyrants in Cuba and other dictatorships around the globe, I urge the Administration to increase pressure on these regimes and unequivocally call on them to respect basic human rights and allow their people to live in freedom, democracy, and liberty.
“After three years of this Administration’s foreign policy, America is less secure, less prosperous, and less respected. We cannot continue to sacrifice the future for the present. Unless the President changes his course, we can expect only further retreat in the year ahead, for which America and its allies will inevitably pay an incalculable price.”