you are great. thank you very much. [applause] i told them to stay, we'll go down together. i'm almost finished, right? we'll go down together. so to all the families here today who have lost a loved one, i'd like to ask you to all please stand. please stand. you lost mothers and fathers, husbands and wives, sons and daughters, and america lost incredible heroes. but they will endure forever, forever and ever. you know that. they're going to endure forever. she will endure forever in our memories, in our hearts and in the countless lives they touched through their courage and through their grace.

their legacy will never die. >> we are going to leave just the last few minutes of this. secretary of state mike pompeo about to deliver remarks on the administration's new strategy or for iran. >> well, good morning, everyone. i first want to thank the heritage foundation and its president, thank you for hosting me today. first, as a private citizen and then as a member of congress and even today, the heritage foundation has shaped my thinking on matters of the world and public policy, so i am grateful for that excellent work. and thanks for reminding me, i can't talk about anything else but what we're talking about today, three years on. [laughter] but it's an honor to be here. two weeks ago president trump terminated the united states' participation in the joint comprehensive plan of action more commonly known as the iran nuclear deal. president trump withdrew from the deal for a simple reason, it

failed to guarantee the safe tiff of the american -- safety of the american people from the risks created by the leaders of the islamic republic of iran. no more. no more wealth creation for iranian kleptocrats, no more acceptance of missiles landing in riyadh and the go loan heights -- golan heights. no more. the jcopoa put the world at risk because of its fatal flaws. and they're worth recounting at some length today if only for the purpose of insuring the subsequent arrangements do not repeat them. for example, the weak sunset provisions merely delayed the inevitable nuclear weapons capability of the iranian regime. after the countdown clock ran out on the deal's sunset provisions, iran would be free for a quick sprint to the bomb setting off a potentially

catastrophic arms race in the region. indeed, the very brevity of the delay in the iranian nuclear program itself incentivized middle eastern proliferation. moreover, as we have seen from israel's recent remarkable intelligence operation, iran has lied for years about having had a nuclear weapons program. iran entered into the jcpoa in bad faith. it is worth noting that even today the regime continues to lie. just last month iranian foreign minister told a sunday morning news show we never wanted to produce a bomb. this claim would be laughable if not for the willful deception behind it. not only did the program exist, the iranians took great care -- though as we can see now, not enough care -- to protect, hide and preserve the work of the gang of nuclear scientists. the jcpoa had additional

shortcomings as well. the mechanisms for inspecting and verifying iran's compliance with the deal were simply not strong enough. the deal did nothing to address iran's continuing development of ballistic ask cruise missiles -- and cruise missiles which could deliver nuclear warheads. the jcpoa permitted the iranian regime to use the money from the jcpoa to boost the economic fortunes of a struggling people, but the regime's leaders refused to do so. instead, the government spent its newfound treasure fueling proxy wars across the middle east and arming the pockets of hezbollah, hamas and the houthis. remember, iran advanced its march across the middle east during the jcpoa. sulemani has been playing with house money that has become blood money. wealth created by the west has feud his campaign. strategically -- fueled his campaign. strategically, the obama

administration made a bet that the deal would spur iran to stop its rogue state actions and conform to international norms. that bet was a loser with massive reper cutses for -- repercussions for all of the people living in the middle east. .. whether the middle east is more manageable today than when they embarked on the . is hezbollah more than then. hezbollah is armed to the teeth by iran and has its sight set on israel. thanks to iran, hezbollah provides the ground forces for the military expeditions in syria and rgc 2 has propped up

the murderous assad regime made it 71,000 square miles of kill zone. aran perpetuated the conflict and displaced more than 6 million syrians and caused over 5 million to seek refuge outside of its borders. these refugees including foreign fighters who crossed into europe and threatened terrorist attacks in those countries. in iraq, iran sponsored shia militia groups and terrorists to undermine the iraqi security forces and jeopardize iraq's sovereignty. all of this during the jcpoa. in yemen, iran's supporting the houthi people and starving others and to threaten international shipping in the red sea. and in afghanistan, iran's support to the taliban in the

form of weapons and funding leads to further violence and hinde hinders peace and stability for the people. and covert operations in the heart of europe. we should remember, too, that during the jcpoa iran continues to hold americans hostage, like shea wong and bob levenson missing over 11 years. i will note for the american people, you should know that we're working diligently to bring each american missing wrongfully detained in iran home. the list continues. iran continues to be during the j jcpoa the large he is sponsor of terrorists and al qaeda as it's done since 9/11, and

refuses to bring to justice senior al qaeda members resideening tehran. today, we ask the iranian people, is this what you want your country to be known for? for being a co-conspirator with hezbollah, hamas, the taliban, and al qaeda? the united states believes you deserve better. and i have an additional point for the iranian people to ponder. here in the west presidents are held apart from the terrorist behavior and treated differently. the west says only if they could control atolla khomeini, and others it could be great. yet, they are your elected leaders. are they not the most responsible for your economic struggles? are these two not responsible for wasting iranian lives throughout the middle east?

it's worse the iranian people considering. because instead of helping their own citizens, the regime continues to seek a corridor stretching from iran's borders to the shores of the mediterranean. iran wants this corridor to transfer fighters and weapons to israel's door steps. in recent months, they've flown an armed drone into the golan heights from syria. our steadfast ally has asserted the sovereign right of self-defense in response, a stance the united states will unequivocally support. and the jcpoa was a bad one for america, europe, the middle east and indeed, the entire world. it's clear jc pchljcpoa did to deter. they saw it as a starting gun for the march across the middle east.

so, the path forward. america's commit to the iran strategy president trump laid down in october remains. it will now be executed outside of the jcpoa. we'll continue to work with allies to counter the region's destabilizing activities in the region. block their financing of terror and address iran's proliferation of missiles and other advanced weapons systems that threaten peace and stability. we will ensure iran has no path to a nuclear weapon. not now, not ever. following our withdrawal from jcpoa the president asked me to pursue these goals along several lines of effort. first, we will apply unprecedented financial pressure on the iranian regime. the leaders in tehran will have no doubt about our seriousness. thanks to our colleagues at the department of treasury,

sanctions are going back in full effect and new ones are coming. last week, we imposed sanctions on the head of iran central banks and others who were funneling money to the rigc and providing money to hezbollah and other terrorist organizations. the iranian regime should know this is just the beginning. the sting of sanctions will be painful if the regime does not change its course from the unacceptable and unproductive path it's chosen to one that rejoins the league of nations. these will indeed end up being the strongest sanctions in history when we are complete. the regime has been fighting all over the middle east for years, after our sanctions come in force, it will be battling to keep its economy alive. iran will be forced to make a choice. either fight to keep its economy off life support at home or squandering precious wealth on fights abroad. it will not have the resources to do both.

second, i will work closely with the department of defense and our regional allies to deter iranian aggression. we will assure freedom of navigation on the waters in the region. we will work to prevent and counter act any iranian cyber activity. we will track down iranian and hezbollah proxies operating around the world and we will crush them. iran will never again have carte blanche to dominate the middle east. and i'd remind the leadership in iran what president trump said, if they restart their nuclear program, it will mean bigger problems, bigger problems than they'd ever had before. third, we will also advocate tirelessly for the iranian people. the regime must improve how it treats its citizens. it must protect the human rights of every iranian, it must cease wasting iran's wealth abroad. we ask our international partners continue to add their voice to ours in condemning

iran's treatment of its own citizens. the protests. the protests of the past months show that the iranian people are frustrated with their own government's failures. the iranian economy is struggling as a result of bad iranian decisions. workers aren't getting paid. strikes are daily occurrence and the real is plummeting. youth unemployment is at a staggering 25%. and mismanagement of resources led to droughts and other crisis as well. and look, these are with corruption and iranian people can smell it. and they're angry at the regime and keeps for itself what they steal from the people and that commits hundreds of millions of dollars to military operations and terrorist groups abroad while the iranian people cry out for a simple life with jobs

and opportunity and with liberty. the iranian regime's response to the protest only exposed the leadership as running scared. thousands have been jailed arbitrarily and at least dozens have been killed. as seen from the job protests, the brutal men of the regime seem to be particularly terrified by iranian women who are demanding their rights. as human beings, with inherent dignitie dignities, the women are demanding what the men have had. and this is what the regime inflicted for decades on the regime's ideology. the iranian regime is ultimately going to have to look itself in the mirror. the iranian people are increasingly eager for economic, political and social change. the united states stands with those longing for a country of economic opportunity,

government transparency, fairness and greater liberty. we hope, indeed, we expect that the iranian regime will support and not reject the aspirations of its own citizens. we're open to new steps with not only our allies and partners, but with iran as well, but only if iran is willing to make major changes. as president trump said two weeks ago, he's ready, willing and able to negotiate a new deal. but the deal is not the objective. our goal is to protect the american people. any new agreement will make sure iran never acquires a nuclear weapon and will deter the regime's maligned behavior in a way the jcpoa never could. we will not repeat the mistakes of the past administrations and we will not renegotiate the jcpoa itself. the iran is proof that its

nuclear aspirations cannot be separated from the overall security picture. so what should it be? we must be beginning define what it is that we demand from iran. first, iran must declare to the iaea full account of the prior military dimensions of its nuclear program and verifybly abandon such work in perpetuity. second, iran must stop enrichment and never resume plutonium processing including the heavy water reactor. iran must give iaea access. and halt launching of nuclear capable missile systems. iran must release all u.s. citizens as well as citizens of 0 your partners and allies, each of them detained on

spurious charges. iran must end support to middle east terrorist groups bug middle east hezbollah, hamas and palestinian-islamic jihad. iran must respect the sovereignty of the iraqi government and permit remobilization and reintegration of shia militias. and must end support of the houthi militia and work for a peaceful settlement in yemen. iran must withdraw all forces under iranian command throughout the entirety of syria. iran, too, must end support for the taliban and other terrorist groups in the region and cease harboring senior al qaeda leaders. iran, too, must end the rig forces for terrorists and militant partners around the world and, too, iran must end its threatening behavior against its neighbors, many of whom are u.s. allies,this

includes are the threats to israel and missiles in the united arab emirates and end cyber attacks. the list is pretty long, but if you look at it these are 12 basic requirements the length of the list is simply the scope of the maligning behavior of iran. we didn't create the list, they did. from my conversations with european friends, i know that they broadly share these same views of what the iranian regime must do to gain acceptance in the international community. i ask that america's allies join us in calling for the iranian government to act more responsibly. in exchange for major changes in iran, the united states is prepared to take actions which will benefit the iranian people. these areas of action include a number of things, first, once this is achieved, we're

prepared to end the principal components of every one of our sanctions against the regime. we're happy at that point to reestablish full diplomatic and commercial relationships with iran. and we're prepared to admit iran to have advanced technology. if iran makes this fundamental strategic shift we're to support the modernization and integration of the iranian economy into the international economic system. but relief from our efforts will come only when we see tangible demonstrated and sustained shifts in tehran's policies. we acknowledge iran's right to defend its people, but not its actions which jeopardize world citizens. also, in contrast to the previous administration, we want to include congress as a partner in this process. we want our efforts to have broad support with the american people and endure beyond the trump administration. a treaty would be our preferred

way to go. unlike the jcpoa, which was broadly rejected on both sides of the aisle and an agreement that president trump would garner widespread support from our elected leaders and from the american people. in the strategy we laid out today, we want the support of our most important allies and partners in the region and around the globe. thirdly, our european friends, but much more than that. we want the australians, bahrainions, indians, japanese, omanies, saudi arabia, south korea, uae and many, many others world wide to join in this effort against the islamic republic of iran. i know that those countries share the same goals. they understand the challenge the same way that america does. indeed, we welcome any nation which is sick and tired of the nuclear threats, the terrorism,

the missile proliferation, and the brutality of regime which is at odds with world peace, a country that continues to inflict chaos on innocent people. indeed, the changes on iranian behavior we seek may seem unrealistic, we should recall what we're pursuing was the global concensus before the jcpoa. for example, in 2012, president obama said, quote, the deal we'll accept is that they'll end their nuclear program, end of quote. that didn't happen. in 2006, the p-5 voted at the security council for iran to suspend all enrichment activities. >> that didn't happen. in 2013, the french foreign minister said he was wary of being sucked into a con game, end of quote, over iran to

continue iranian enrichment. in 2015 john kerry said, quote, we don't recognize the right to enrich, end of quote. yet, the iranians are enriching even as we sit here today. so we're not asking anything other than that iranian behavior be consistent with global norms. global norms widely recognized before the jcpoa and we want to eliminate the capacity to threaten our world with those nuclear activities. with respect to its nuclear activities, why would we allow iran more capability than we've permitted the united arab emirates and asking of the kingdom of saudi arabia? we understand that our reimposition of sanctions and coming campaign on the iranian regime will pose economic difficulties for a number of our friends, indeed, it imposes economic challenges to america as well. these are markets our businesses would love to sell into as well.

and we want to hear their concerns, but you know, we will hold those doing prohibited business in iran to account. over the coming weeks, we will send teams of specialists to countries around the world to further explain administration policy, to discuss the implications of sanctions reimpositioned and to listen. i know, i've spent a great deal of time with our allies in my first three weeks. i know that they may decide to try and keep their old nuclear deal going with tehran, that's certainly their decision to make. they know where we stand. next year marks the 40th anniversary of the islamic republic, revolution in iran. at this milestone we have to ask, what has the iranian revolution given to the iranian people? the regime reaps the harvest of suffering and death in the middle east at the expense of its own citizens. iran's economy is stagnant and

without direction and about to get worse. its young people are withering under the weight of frustrated ambitions. they're longing to pursue the freedoms and opportunities of the 21st century. iran's leaders can change all of this if they choose to do so. khomeini has been the supreme court le court-- supreme leader and he will not live forever. and they've acted a heavy toll on people and the entire world. the hard grip on repression are what millions of iranians have ever known. now is the time for the supreme leader to do something for its own people for this anxious and proud nation. as the united states, our eyes are clear as to the nature of this regime, but our ears are

open to what may be possible. unlike the previous administration, we're looking for outcomes that benefit the iranian people not just the regime. if anyone, especially the leaders of the iran, doubts the president's sincerity, let them look at our diplomacy with north korea, our willing inest to meet with kim jong-un underscores diplomacy to help solve the greatest challenges even with our staunchest adversaries, but that willingness has been accompanied by painful pressure campaign that reflects our commitment to resolve this challenge forever. to the ayatollah, to president rouhani and to other iranian leaders, understand that your current activities will be met with steely resolve. my final message today is, in fact, to the iranian people. i want to repeat president trump's words from october.

president trump says that we stand in total solidarity with the iranian regime's longest suffering victims, its own people. the citizens of iran have paid a heavy price for the violence and extremism of their leaders. the iranian people long to reclaim their country's proud history, its culture, its civilization and its cooperation with its neighbors. it is america's hope that our labors towards peace and security will bear fruit for the long-suffering people of iran. we long to see them prosper and flourish as in past decades and, indeed, as never before. today the united states of america's proud to take a new course towards that objective. thank you. [applaus

[applause] >> thank you so very much. bold, concise, unam bbiguous. we appreciate you taking this forum here at the heritage foundation to deliver that message. looking at-- and you listed during your speech several of our allies and friends and partners, many of whom are angry, some disappointed. how are you going to bring them on board? how are you going to use your best diplomatic skills to bring them along with us? >> these strategic changes in the world come together when countries decide on an

objective that is shared and that always begins with a shared interest in values. i've spent the first couple of weeks of my time as secretary of state working to try and see if there wasn't a way to fix the deal. i spoke with my european counterparts and traveled there in my 13th hour of secretary of state i was on the ground in brussels speaking with my european counterparts and we couldn't get it done. we couldn't reach agreement there. the united states intends to work hard at diplomate tech peace of working alongside all of our partners. we focused on the europeans, but there are scores of countries around the world who share our concerns and who are equally threatened by the iranian regime. it's that shared interest and values which will ultimately drive, i believe, a global response to this, to the world's largest state sponsor of terror. i'm convinced it can take place. my team is going to work diligently to do that and work in the context of trying to address the concerns of all of

our partners and i'm convinced over a period of time there will be a broad recognition that the strategy that president trump laid out is the right one that will put iran in a place where it will one day rejoin civilization in the way that we hope it will. >> it's clear through your comments this morning that you truly want tough sanctions and i think that there is some remaining concern about how you're going to deal with the nuclear concerns. can you speak to that for just a bit? and let me say to our audience, by the way, that i wish we had more time with the secretary this morning, and there will be an abrupt and a hard stop because we have to get him out to the cia and for the swearing-in ceremony and we don't want you late for that. so, talk to us-- >> got to go back one more time. >> one more time.

>> look, the nuclear follow-up is imperative and is the largest threat for sure. the jcpoa fell short and we asked our other partners to say, this is what you have to do and they say, hey, the iranians enrich. nukes are reasonable, that seems to be a reasonable point? our demands on iran aren't unreasonab unreasonable. give up your program, end it. should they continue to enrich, i'm not going to share with you precisely what our response will be. we've watched them talk and i hope they'll make a different decision and choose a different path. we welcome them taking a path that other nations in their region are beginning to take as well. >> well, can you explain for us the sanction structure and how you intend to target the iranian regime without hurting

our european friends? >> well, anytime sanctions are put in place, countries have to give up economic activity. so, the americans have given up economic activity now for an awfully long time, and i'll concede, there are american companies who would love to do business with the islamic republic of iran. there's a huge market there. there's a big vibrant wonderful peoples, but everyone's going to have to participate in this. every country's going to have to understand that we cannot continue to create wealth for solomany. at the end of the day, this money has flowed to him and run across russia and the middle east. our effort has to strangle his economic capacity to do harm to the middle east and world. nuclear programs aren't cheap. to the extent that we're effective at make it go more difficult on the iranian regime we will reduce the capacity to continue to build up the

nuclear weapons system as well. >> you've laud out a very, very bold plan this morning. do you have a time frame for getting all of this done? >> so the sanctions are back in place and your winding down over the next hundred and what, 55 days. there's lots more work in place. it is an effort across all of government. we're working, certainly diplomatically in the lead, but department of commerce and defense, each of us has the mission from president trump. i can't put it timeline on it, but at the end of the day, the iranian people will decide the timeline. at the end of the day the iranian people will get a make a choice about their leadership. if they make the decision quickly, that would be wonderful. if they choose not to do so, we will stay hard at this until we achieve the outcomes that i set forward today. >> well, mr. secretary, again, on behalf of the heritage foundation and the scholars

here who have been working on these issues for a very long time, we want to thank you, again, it was a bold vision, clear, concise, unambiguous and we want to congratulate you and the president and we wish you godspeed. i am going to ask you to remain seated while the secretary exits. i have about eight more questions here, but-- >> for another day, thank you all very much for being here. >> thank you so much. [applause] >> again, thank you all for joining us here, i would invite you to check our website. we have lots of interesting speakers. we have symposiums, we are producing papers on a regular basis.

all of which we hope contribute to the ongoing dialog that we have. i think i have spoken long enough that you may now be released. thank you so much. [applause]. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> we'll have secretary pompeo's remarks from the heritage foundation available a little later today on our website, check that out at c-span.org or watch his speech again tonight we'll have it at 10 p.m. eastern on c-span. [inaudible conversations] >> later this week, secretary of state mike pompeo will testify at two capitol hill hearings on his department's budget. wednesday he'll be before the

house foreign affairs committee, live starting at 9 a.m. eastern. we'll have that on c-span 3. also on c-span.org or listen live on the free c-span radio app and thursday, the secretary will be before the senate foreign relations committee live at 10 a.m. eastern on c-span 3. also live on-line and by using the radio app. . >> tonight on the communicators. the second part of our coverage of the congressional hack-a-thon conference. >> i work for mccarthy and myself with ian dwyer, our goal is to bring people together on capitol hill and also off the hill, in order to serve, improve government and make it more accountable to the people and use the tools that come here to better serve our constituents. >> we engineered a, sort of a whole new process for creating committee hearing reports and that's a process that's been in place for many, many, many

decades and we developed an app that automates the process of committee hearing reports. it's a web-based app and sort of taking the process that had been taking weeks really to do and manual and data entry, to one that's just done with essentially a click of the button. >> watch the communicators tonight at 8:00 eastern on c-span2. c-span2. >> next, small business administrator linda mcmahon talking about her agency's priorities and the impact of the 2017 tax law. she talked recently at the national press club. we'll bring you as much of this as we can before live coverage of president trump begins, he'll be swearing in the new cia director gina haspel. [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] >> good afternoon. good afternoon, everyone, welcome to the national press club. the world's leading professional organization for journalists. my name a andrn andrea edney bloomberg news and 111th president of the national press club. thank you. [applause] >> well, we are so pleased to welcome today's speaker, the head of the u.s. small business administration, linda mcmahon. before we begin, i would like to ask you if you haven't already, please turn off all cell phones. if you're tweeting, our handle is press