ANAHEIM — Congressman Ed Royce (R-CA), Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told the California GOP Convention on Saturday that he is deeply concerned about increases in Iran’s terrorist activity as a result of the Iran deal.
“It is important, from a national security perspective, that Republicans regain the White House [because] something must be done to send a countervailing message,” Royce said. He noted that the Obama administration was “rolled” when negotiating the deal and that a future Republican administration would not be taken for such a ride on the world stage.
“Call me naïve, but I always thought that the international inspections were going to be done by international inspectors,” Royce said, recalling news that Iran will be allowed to self-inspect its Parchin military base, according to secret side deals between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). He argued that learning about the side deals was the point at which the American publicwoke up to the reality of the dangers of the deal.
“It turns out, the Iranians got a better deal than the North Koreans got,” Royce said, because of the secret “side deal.” Royce recalled his deep concern and worry from the start of the talks due to Wendy Sherman’s involvement as a head negotiator despite having failed to broker a stable nuclear deal with North Korea, which now has nuclear weapons.
Western civilization, Royce explained, is Iran’s main target. The Iranian regime just announced a new ballistic missile, called the Fateh 313, that has a range of over 300 miles. Iran is telling Hezbollah that it will supply the Lebanese terror group with the GPS capability for guidance and control so it can target and direct close to 100,000 missiles with which Iran has already provided them.
Additionally, Royce noted that Iran has committed to putting the money up to rebuild the destroyed Hamas tunnels and to resupplying the terrorist organization with rockets, explaining that the money for these terrorist ventures will come from the $60 to $100 billion in sanctions relief that Iran will be receiving as a result of this deal. “A lot of this has to do with their commitments to Hassan Nasrallah and Hezbollah,” Royce said. He added:
So when the money comes out of escrow and goes into those accounts, it is the IRGC [Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps] that is going to have that disposable income. And if they’re willing to do this amount of chaos based upon what they have in hand–which included, by the way, support for the Muslim Brotherhood and trying to topple the government in Egypt even after al-Sisi came into power–imagine what they are going to do in the region.
Several days after the announcement of the agreement, Royce said, there was the annual Quds parade in Iran and the nation’s so-called “moderate” Present Rouhani, who has overseen the deaths of over 2,000 political prisoners in Iran this year, was marching in it. And behind him, there were banners which read “Death to America” along with crowds of people chanting those same words as they attempted to undermine “the great Satan,” the leader of the free world.
The United States had best change its course, its behavior and its messaging so that other would-be despots around this globe don’t get the impression that the next administration can get rolled in the way that this administration was rolled.
Republicans needed to send Ronald Reagan’s message, Royce said–“a message of hope and freedom and optimism that the future was with free societies and free markets and free people.”
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