Ileana Ros-Lehtinen Takes Aim at Obama on Iran

From her perch as chairwoman of the U.S. House Middle East and North Africa Subcommittee, U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., fired away at reports that the Obama administration is planning to let foreign governments and international banks use American currency in transactions with Iran. 

"If reports are true that the Obama administration is seeking ways to allow Iran to access to the U.S. financial system or dollar transactions, it would be not only be foolish but dangerous for our national security interests” Ros-Lehtinen said on Friday. “It would be a stunning reversal of the promises the administration gave to Congress repeatedly while the debate over the JCPOA was ongoing, but considering the way the administration obfuscated and circumvented Congress during the negotiations, this would be par for the course. No doubt the Iranians have threatened to walk away from Mr. Obama's precious deal, and as we have seen time and again in the past, he is willing to give away the store to the regime in order to keep this weak and dangerous deal in place.

"There is simply no justification for allowing Iran access to our financial system and the dollar when we know the regime will use this as a means to launder its illicit cash and finance its global terror operations” Ros-Lehtinen added. “Yet the president seems eager to hand over our greatest piece of leverage over the Iranians in an attempt to preserve his nuclear accord. Congress must act to take every measure possible to block this attempt, and to further restrict Iran's access to the U.S. and global financial institutions. The regime has done nothing but antagonize since the implementation of the JCPOA, and we must move to not only fully and vigorously enforce existing sanctions, but to expand on them and reimpose others.”