for thean support jcpoa. previous assurances clearly decided we deserve the right to take new steps. should we need to push back harder against iran's nonnuclear behavior. i think the repeated ballistic missile launches and desired to purchase all types of weapons from russia proved that an increased push back is necessary. i hope you can help us answer some of these outstanding questions in a constructive matters that we can know what the administration is thinking regarding these important matters. with that again, i want to thank you for your service, i am glad you are confirmed in the timeframe that you were, and i appreciate you being here. i will not turn it over to our distinguished ranking member, then cardin. sen. cardin: thank you, mr. chairman. this is our first hearing on the jcpoa since its implementation on january 16, as they look at how we are going to look at the post-jcpoa era. it is a pleasure to have you here, ambassador. thank you for your continued commitment to our country. you hold a c

to me, it is not undermining the jcpoa. but i wanthe jcpoa, to see it now carried out. i want aggressive oversight by the administration and congress to make sure there is strict compliance by iran. then we need to work in unity on other nefarious activities, including the support of terrorism and human rights violations and its ballistic missile tests. and how congress, working with the administration, can give you a stronger hand to prevent these types of activities from continuing. i look forward to this exchange to see how we can work together to prevent iran from becoming a nuclear weapon state and also to activities in regards to the support of terrorism. sen. corker: are when us is the honorable thomas shannon, undersecretary of state for political affairs. if you can summarize your comments and about five minutes. most of us have probably read your written testimony, but it will be entered into the record without objection in fullness. thank you again for being here. mr. shannon: thank you, mr. chairman and ranking member cardin and distinguished members of the

our human rights policy has not changed as a result of the jcpoa.ates fundamental human rights by restricting civil liberties and including peace, assembly and religion. human right related sanks are not subject to release under jcpoa and we continue to enforce these things. while our concerns about iran are substantial, we believe it's in u.s. national interest to address issues where we can and make sure that iran is hearing publicly and privately what we stand for and what we won't stand for. we will continue to hold iran to commitment about the whereabouts about robert levinson and will continue to raise unjust detention of citizens. the congress plays an essential role in shaping our policy and posture toward iran. the legislative and executive branches should continue to work together as we did to build international pressure on iran to calibrate our approach to counter iranian threats. i look forward to consultations with progress as we strive to find the right balance and we keep lines of communication open and standing strong in face real t

it is not undermining the jcpoa. but i want to see it carried out and aggressive oversight to make sure of strict compliance with iran in regard to its nuclear obligations. then we need to work in unity on iran's other nefarious activities that are continuing including the support of terrorism and human rights violations and its ballistic missile test. and how we can give you a stronger hand to prevent these types of activities from continuing. i look forward to working together to keep iran from becoming a nuclear state and rein in on human rights violations and support of terrorism. >> tom shannon is our witness under the secretary for political affairs at the u.s. department of state. i know you have been in before us in the past. if you could summarize your comments in about five minutes. thank you again for being here. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman, ranking member cardin, and distinguished members of the committee. it is a pleasure to be here and thank you you and all of your members of the committee for

it is not undermining the jcpoa. but i want to see it carried out and aggressive oversight to make sure of strict compliance with iran in regard to its nuclear obligations. then we need to work in unity on iran's other nefarious activities that are continuing including the support of terrorism and human rights violations and its ballistic missile test. and how we can give you a stronger hand to prevent these types of activities from continuing. i look forward to working together to keep iran from becoming a nuclear state and rein in on human rights violations and support of terrorism. >> tom shannon is our witness under the secretary for political affairs at the u.s. department of state. i know you have been in before us in the past. if you could summarize your comments in about five minutes. thank you again for being here. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman, ranking member cardin, and distinguished members of the committee. it is a pleasure to be here and thank you you and all of your members of the committee for

russia, as a jcpoa country, a world power, a member of the u.n. security council, needs to be convinced that it is in its best interests and in the interests of the international community that iran sticks to its commitments under the jcpoa. i thank you, senator coons, for making those points. as you noted, i also want to stress the need to enforce iran's commitments under the joint comprehensive plan of action. also to confirm nominees for positions vital to national security and to support our allies in the middle east. preventing iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon is one of the most important objectives of our national security policy. i have strongly advocated for and supported the economic sanctions that brought iran to the negotiating table over the last few years. those sanctions resulted in a nuclear nonproliferation agreement between iran and the united states, united kingdom, france, germany, russia and china that was implemented in january, but our work is clearly not done. as we have seen over the past few months, iran continues to c

that framework ultimately became the jcpoa, or the joint comprehensive plan of action. and in the months since that agreement took effect, iran has taken steps to significantly restrain its nuclear program. that's true. they filled with concrete the core of their reactor at irak. they shipped out of the cm, 98 -- county 98% of their enriched uranium and they have allowed searchable inspections by the iaea, and those are all good steps. yet the iranian regime continues to engage in dangerous actions outside this jcpoa, outside the nuclear agreement, including ongoing human rights abuses, support for terrorism in the middle east and its repeated illegal ballistic missile tests. and you will aof those are on-- all of those are ongoing reminders to us that american security and the security of our allies demands constant vigilance and close scrutiny of iran's actions. since last september, i've regularly called upon my congressional colleagues, the obama administration and our european allies to be wary of iran's intentions and to continue to seekays to effectively push bac

that is preventing the implementation of sanctions lifting as specified in this jcpoa, unquote. well, that's amazing. the administration makes a deal that they're willing to sign a deal with iran that violates our own constitution. they have no right to dictate laws to state and local authorities, but they apparently signed a deal with iran that they would dictate state and local law. this is a foreign relations matter. so why does the iran deal commit washington merely to encourage and otherwise try to persuade state and local officials to honor the deal's terms? because for all its bluster about domestic and international law, the administration knows this deal has no legal standing. plainly, the president is trying to muscle his way through the inconvenience that the jcpoa is merely an executive agreement. it's not a legal enforceable treaty, nor is it supported by any legislation that would bind the states. president obama's willing to work through sheer extra legal executive power. well, the article goes on -- it's a good article. but then, again, when we look at thisecord

so the jcpoa, coming back to the arms agreement, that's all it was. it was designed to increase stability and decrease proliferation to improve our global standing in the process. but the outcome is an increase in a regional arms race. saudi arabia just recently passed russia as the third largest spender on military weapons in the world. our secretary of defense was sent out, some called it the secretary of reassurance, right after the agreement was signed to the israeli and arab capitals in order to make certain they knew we were willing to sell them more weapons because we recognize the increase danger as the money that had been released by the unscrs and the lack of economic sanctions, that money was now going to go in maybe not to one program, at least not for a year or two. the nuclear one. but there was nothing to indicate that the money was not going to continue to flow to the other threats. the impression in the region was that the u.s. was withdrawing. the best case ---ist just is w the region a couple weeks ago. i head back tomorrow. the bes

so the jcpoa, coming back to the arms agreement, that's all it was. it was designed to increase stability and decrease proliferation to improve our global standing in the process. but the outcome is an increase in a regional arms race. saudi arabia just recently passed russia as the third largest spender on military weapons in the world. our secretary of defense was sent out, some called it the secretary of reassurance, right after the agreement was signed to the israeli and arab capitals in order to make certain they knew we were willing to sell them more weapons because we recognize the increase danger as the money that had been released by the unscrs and the lack of economic sanctions, that money was now going to go in maybe not to one program, at least not for a year or two. the nuclear one. but there was nothing to indicate that the money was not going to continue to flow to the other threats. the impression in the region was that the u.s. was withdrawing. the best case -- i was just in the region a couple weeks ago. i head back tomorrow. the bes

so the jcpoa, coming back to the arms agreement, that's all it was. it was designed to increase stability and decrease proliferation to improve our global standing in the process. but the outcome is an increase in a regional arms race. saudi arabia just recently passed russia as the third largest spender on military weapons in the world. our secretary of defense was sent out, some called it the secretary of reassurance, right after the agreement was signed to the israeli and arab capitals in order to make certain they knew we were willing to sell them more weapons because we recognize the increase danger as the money that had been released by the unscrs and the lack of economic sanctions, that money was now going to go in maybe not to one program, at least not for a year or two. the nuclear one. but there was nothing to indicate that the money was not going to continue to flow to the other threats. the impression in the region was that the u.s. was withdrawing. the best case ---ist just is w the region a couple weeks ago. i head back tomorrow. the bes

the jcpoa as it is implemented prevents iran from achieving a nuclear weapon. >> yes or no. do you believe iran hopes to put a nuclear weapon on top of a ballistic miss snl. >> at this point no, because they can't. >> mr. shannon, in conversations i've had with allies in the region, nobody there believes they've given up their nuclear weapons ambition. >> shannon told lawmakers today they should be in no rush to renew the iran sanctions act which expires at the ends of the year. let's get analysis from indicated columnist charles krauthamer in washington. you listened to that from the administration and the lack of an answer about the ambition of iran to get a nuclear weapon. that doesn't track with everything we hear from the region. >> the lack of an answer because it's obviously disingenuous what shonn none just said. the idea iran would invest billions of dollars of intercontinent el and medium range ballistic missile systems in order to put sticks of dynamite on top is simply absurd. you build these systems to deliver nukes. shannon's contention that they have no intent

it's in full accordance with the content of the jcpoa, and i think what saudi arabia is asking iran to do is not a very fair or long cal. >>> for more on the fallout in doha and where oil goals from here, let's bring in john kilduff. founder of the rapt group actionened former energy advisers and jim smith, former ambassador to saudi arabia. john kilduff let me start with you. are there any surprises a deal was not made? tectations were high that something would come together, this would be a past forward. that was the competing na narrative. obviously that's what developed. for me the biggest takearm is the ascendancy of mohammed bil salmon, and picked up the phone and said no deal. he was set to go with a production deal freed that would have excluded iran. >> there a dissonance in the saudi camp at all that you can discern here, based on what john kilduff just said? >> i can't verify john's comment there. what i can tell you is the saudis have always had great apprehension are iran's destabilization strategy. on the each of president obama's visit to the region. they have clearly vo

i wanted to ask you a final question about the jcpoa or iran deal and in there there's a provision that said that the u.s. must cooperate with teheran through training to strengthen to protect against sabotage in the nuclear program. admiral rogers as the u.s. helped t-- >> i can't speak for the u.s. government as a whole. u.s. cyber command has not participated in any such effort. >> okay. thank you. >> i missed some of the discussion, i don't want to be needlessly repetitive but want to go to an interchange you had with the chair in opening questions. i met recently with a senior military leader that tried to basically summer rise his sense of things and said we have o plans but no strategy. i've been thinking about that. i think in your back and forth with the chair you talked about and i think others may have asked you about this, this notion we're kind of reacting case by case to cyber attacks and kind of deciding in each instance what we want to do but the development of a broader doctrine, whether it's, you know, what will a detoerrence policy be in terms of triggering and collec

>> what would you do to strengthened iran nuclear agreement beyond what's already in the sort of jcpoa? are you concerned about the missile launches, for example? and what is your advice on north korea? how can we re-engages this country, given its rhetoric, its actions? it seems impervious to influence. thank you. >> i don't know how to add much to your first question. i think the iran nuclear deal was a wise move on the part of both countries, both in terms of dealing at least the time of which iran could have a nuclear weapon, delaying considerably. and most importantly, creating an apartment where we might be able to see some improvement, in the government an event which would lead to improved relations between iran attorney. there's a reason for the united states adamant to be enemies. iran is a great country with a great culture. we should find a way of our two countries to be living together peacefully. this iran nuclear deal was the first positive step in that direction so i will applaud both leaders of countries to come to agreement. it's just a step come and more important st

like i say, i hope i'll be retired, i might be dead by the time the jcpoa kind of expires or doesn't expire it comes to its culmination, but who can predict what the american body politic will be like. but there's still deliverables in there. and so if you are the counterpart, this is a big, this is a big issue and something we don't pay enough attention to. on other issues when it's cyber norms and you go to other countries and they say we would need it in a treaty pup say why? because we don't think u.s. commitments are worth anything. we watch what happens in congress. we want a treaty. i laugh why do you want it in a treaty we can tear up the treaty too. yeah but it's harder to do with a treaty. they point you can abrogate. then you have to apologize and say there are no more treaties because nobody can get 67 votes to ratify a treaty on anything so you have to take an executive agreement. this becomes very difficult and we've seen it on climate change recently. other things. so the vignettes that bob was talking about, just a short slice in time on the dprk deal, we'll be having

i want to ask you a final question about the jcpoa, or the iran deal. in there there's a provision that said that the u.s. must cooperate with tehran through training and workshops to strengthen iran's ability to prevent sabotage of its nuclear program? >> i cannot speak for the u.s. government as a whole. i can tell you u.s. cyber command has not participated in any such efforts. >> okay. thank you. >> thank you, mr. chair. thank you, admiral rogers. i have missed some of the discussion i don't want to be needlessly repetitive. i want to go back to an interchange you had with the chair in the opening questions that he asked. i met recently with a senior military leader who kind of tried to basically summarize his sense of things. he said we have all plans, but no strategy. i've been thinking about that. i think in your back and forth with the chair, you talked about and i think others may have asked you about this a little bit, this notion that we're kind of reacting case by case to cyberattacks and kind of deciding in each instance what we want to do

i wanted to ask you a final question about the jcpoa or the iran deal. in there there's a provision that said that the u.s. must cooperate with tehran through train and workshops to strengthen iran's ability to protect against sabotage of its nuclear program. from a cyber perspective, has the u.s. helped tehran strengthen its ability to protect against sabotage of its nuclear program? mr. rogers: i cannot speak for the u.s. government as a wlole. i can tell you u.s. cybercommand has not participated in any such efforts. ms. ayotte: thank you. >> thank you, mr. chair. thank you, admiral rogers. i have missed some of the discussion. i don't want to be needlessly repetive. but i've met -- i want to go back to an interchange that you had with the chair in the opening questions. i met recently with a senior military leader who kind of tried to basically summarize his sense of things and he said, we have no plans but no strategy. and i have been thinking about that. i think in your back and forth with the chair, you talked about, and i think others may have as

and it is in full accordance with the content of jcpoa. think that what saudi arabia is asking iran to do is not a very fair logical request. right now iran is trying to just take back the quota it is entitled to so we are going to do that and that is the main direction. >> he went on to accuse the other producers of overproducing and being the reason why the price of oil has fallen saying it's all their fault. >> look, a lot of it has to be that there are new producers producing so much more than ever before. >> oh, yeah. >> the united states. these are individuals. these are not countries that you can get to agree to stop producing. >> sure. that was very much a political statement that he was making, absolutely. >> michelle, while you're here, why don't we talk a little bit about brazil over the weekend because yesterday the lower house voted to impeach president rousseff. >> that vote, the number was much bigger than expected. they only needed 342, they got 367. some people thought it might be close. they thought -- the betting was tha

we look forward to hearing your thoughts on the jcpoa.there is bipartisan frustration with the perception that previous commitments made by the administration are not squaring are reality. secretary kerry said the missile ban would stay in place and testified the same language in the previous embargo is in the agreement with respect to launches. we challenged him when the called upon language was put in place saying we felt that we weakened the agreement. as it turns out, we were right and that is concerning. now our european friends wrote a letter saying it was inconsistent, instead of saying violation, of supporting iran's position. so that was very disappointing. it was confirmed launches were a violation of the resolution in december saying the called upon language would violate u.n.2231. the security council doesn't view it that way obviously. there is speculation iran will get transactions with the u.s. dollar and we would like your

i might be dead by the time the jcpoa kind of expires or doesn't expire it comes to its culmination. but who can predict what the american body politic is going to be like? but there's still deliverables in there. and so, if you are the counterpart, this is a big -- this is a big issue and something we don't pay enough attention to. we see it on other issues whether it's cyber norms and you go to other countries and they say we would need it in a treaty pup say why? because we don't think u.s. commitments are worth anything. we watch what happens in congress. we want a treaty. i laugh. i say, why do you want it in a treaty? we just tear up a treaty, too. they say, yeah, but it's hard tore do with a treaty. they point you can abrogate. then you have to apologize and say, well, there are no more treaties because no one can get 67 votes to ratify a treaty on inspector general so you're going to have to take an executive agreement. this becomes very difficult and we've seen it on climate change recently. [ inaudible ] other things. so the vignettes that bob was talking about, which is ju

the burden is on iran to comply with the jcpoa. the burden is on iran to stop testing ballistic missiles, abusing human rights and supporting terrorism. if iran is unhappy with the level of economic relief it has received since this agreement came into effect, it only has its own actions to blame. as acting under secretary zubin put it -- quote -- the jcpoa, the nuclear deal, is an international arrangement, not a cashier's check. mr. president, i commend dr. zaif for his willingness to travel to the united states and to make his case in front of our council on foreign relations. i think this is a constructive step. but as i've shown, i think the case he made is a weak one. the evidence is clear a coordinated sanctions regime did in fact force iran to negotiate, and iran's nuclear program was not entirely peaceful in its intent or execution. and the u.s. and e.u. aren't holding the iranian economy back. the iranian government is. the iranian government's actions are. in my travels throughout the middle east and in conversations wit

that is not part of the relief offered under the jcpoa. so the u.s. sanctioned iran which of course had their origins long before iran had a nuclear program will remain in place. it's difficult to overstate the important of these statements uttered just a few months ago. the u.s. dollar is the standard currency in which international trade is conducted. because the ayatollahs can't deal in dollars they haven't fully opened their economy to the world thankfully. in addition, the u.s. financial system hasn't yet been tainted by iran's terror financing, its international aggression and its crackdown on domestic democratic dissent. but now a mere seven month intos a 15-year agreement, the obama administration is shedding the resolve its officials tried so hard to display before congress. according to numerous reports, the administration intends to backtrack on the statements of secretary lew and adam szubin and is looking for somehow, some way to give iran access to u.s. dollars to boost iranian trade and investment. i want to be very clear. if the presid