Sen. Mark Kirk calls for sustained economic pressure on Iran in weekly Republican address

WASHINGTON–Sen. Mark Kirk R-Ill. on Saturday delivered the weekly Republican address and focused on using the threat of more – not fewer- economic sanction on Iran in order to get a deal in the ongoing nuclear negotiations.

Imposing economic sanctions on Iran to prevent the nation from obtaining a nuclear weapon is one of Kirk’s signature issues. In his 1:29 address, Kirk invokes the Holocaust and Iran’s push against Israel in making the case to “use strong economic pressure on Iran to prevent them from getting nuclear weapons.”

The framework deal between Iran and the P5+1 (the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Russia, and China) called for gradual lifting of economic sanctions. While negotiators are working to complete a pact by the end of June, Iran’s supreme leader demanded that sanctions against Tehran had to be lifted immediately after a deal went into place.

Republicans take turns delivering the weekly address, a counter to the weekly address delivered by President Barack Obama. On Saturday, Obama discussed climate change in his weekly talk.

Below, the text of Kirk’s address…

“Hello I’m Senator Mark Kirk, I’m honored to represent the people of Illinois in the Senate.

“I’m here today to talk about my work to ensure that the next generation of Americans never has to hear about a nuclear war in the Persian Gulf.

“Iran is the world’s biggest state sponsor of terror.

“Iran’s Aytatollah’s are now trying to build their own nuclear weapons.

“Iranian leaders have repeatedly threatened to annihilate Jewish families across the state of Israel.

“Four years ago I authored a bipartisan Iran sanctions Legislation that passed the Senate by a vote of 100-0.

“These sanctions forced Iran back to the negotiating table.

“They were so effective that they dropped the value of Iran’s currency by ¾.

“This was probably the entire reason why the Iranians even showed up at the negotiations.

“Lately, Iran has tried to backtrack on the promises they made to President Obama.

“Iran now wants sanctions immediately lifted which would fund Iran’s terror subsidiaries with billions.

“Secretary Kerry recently testified before the Senate and said it would only take two more months for Iran to build a bomb.

“We must use strong economic pressure on Iran to prevent them from getting nuclear weapons.

“Stopping Iran from getting nuclear weapons is the greatest challenge to peace in our time.

“After the Holocaust we promised ‘never again.’

“We must keep terrorists from hurting our allies and our nation.

“Thank you for listening and God Bless the United States of America.”