U.S. Rep. French Hill said Tuesday that the Iran nuclear agreement negotiated by President Barack Obama's administration and five other nations delays Iran's nuclear program, "but in no way ends it."
"And in exchange for that they get complete and utter sanctions relief," the Little Rock Republican said, criticizing the administration's foreign policy at a meeting of the Rotary Club of Little Rock at the Clinton Presidential Center.
Hill said the nuclear agreement is "hardly anywhere, anytime inspections."
"I am afraid this deal will only cause proliferation of nuclear weapons in the Middle East," he said. "The reason for that is the arms embargo on Iran is waived and ended after five years in this transaction."
Russia is already selling anti-ballistic and anti-aircraft weapons to Iran, he said.
"This will give them back access to the arms market and give them a stronger foothold in the region," Hill said.
The Iran nuclear arms agreement "actually encourages proliferation by others in the region to get ahead of this deal's expiration," he said.
Hill, who serves on the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services' Terrorism Financing Task Force, said Iran would get a $100 billion-$140 billion "signing bonus" from the release of frozen bank accounts throughout the world.
Noting Iran has a $450 billion economy, "you are talking about 25 percent to 30 percent of their whole GDP is going to be turned over to them in cash."
"Iran can still spend the majority of its vast signing bonus on its domestic economy, while at the same time increase its support for terrorism around the world," he said.
Hill said Obama "presumably" will veto legislation rejecting the Iran unclear agreement. It would take a two-thirds vote of both chambers to override Obama's veto of legislation rejecting agreement.
The administration's response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine "has been full of rhetoric with little or no real action and in my view puts the legitimacy of NATO at risk," Hill said.
"The fear that I think people have is that Russia believes it may never be satisfied without trying to reassemble the countries of the former central and eastern Europe under its orbit," he said.
The U.S. should arm the Ukrainians and allow the export of crude oil and advancement of liquefied natural gas to Europe to be a long-term energy source to the NATO alliance in order to end its reliance on natural gas from Russia, Hill said.
Obama lacks a multifaceted strategy for Syria and his administration's actions haven't had a significant impact on the region, he said.
"The area continues to serve as a breeding ground for new terrorist groups such as ISIS to export terrorism across the Middle East," he said.
Hill said Obama indicated that "we are leaving behind a sovereign, stable, self-reliant Iraq" in 2011 and "yet the president did not agree to a status of forces agreement. That, in my view, paved the way for ISIS expansion out of Syria, into Iraq and allowed us to lose so much ground and so much progress that had been made in trying to stabilize Iraq."
"We participate essentially in a coalition in paper to conduct air strikes on ISIS, yet there are advancements in Iraq and Syria that are a testament to our mission's lack of focus or clear imperative for success," he said.
Metro on 09/02/2015