[Audio] Sen. Coons on Iran nuclear deal: “If we don’t aggressively enforce this agreement this year, it may well come undone by next year”

WASHINGTON – This morning, U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, spoke with Delaware’s WDEL and WILM about his stance on Iran sanctions in the wake of Iran’s recent ballistic missile tests. Senator Coons returned this weekend from a trip to Israel, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Vienna where he met with heads of state and senior government officials about enforcing the nuclear deal with Iran and new developments in the Middle East. 

Senator Coons also focused on positive steps that have been taken toward full implementation of the nuclear agreement, including shipment of twelve tons of enriched uranium out of Iran.

Full audio of WDEL interview available here: http://bit.ly/1ZYDkOL

Full audio of WILM interview available here: http://bit.ly/1PpBij5

Excerpts from WDEL interview below:

“[The trip brought home] how important it is that we hear from the President in the State of the Union tonight a clear forward looking vision for how we are going to defeat violent extremism in the region.”

"It’s my hope that [Obama] will send a very clear and strong signal to the Iranians that his administration intends to actively interdict their efforts to support terrorism and actively take sanctions to the Iranians when they behave badly.” 

“If we don’t aggressively enforce this agreement this year, it may well come undone by next year.”

Excerpts from WILM interview below:

“This year we set the tone for what Iran expects of our behavior and we need to demonstrate that we are watching them like a hawk and that when they take steps that violate our sense of priorities and values in the region that we will take action against them.” 

“The suicide bomber attack in Istanbul this morning is a reminder that terrorism has spread throughout the region and that some of our other allies like Turkey, which has been our NATO ally for 50 years, are looking for help as well, but we have to keep our eye on the ball with Iran.”

“I’ll start by recognizing some progress that has been made. Iran agreed to do several important things. First, to ship out of the country the twelve tons of enriched uranium that they have built up over the last decade that they could have used to race towards a nuclear weapon. That just happened last week, I think, last week. Next, is to fill with concrete the core of the plutonium reactor that they were building. That should happen in the next two weeks. Last, and most importantly I think, is that they let the IAEA inspect all of their nuclear related facilities, twenty-four-seven, so that we have eyes on and monitoring capability to what they are doing.”