mr. blinken if i can visit with you about proliferation.r thing we heard, and i think senator markey talked about, if iran is able to proliferate, who can do and what interests are going to be. we heard saudi arabia is interested in pursuing a development program or purchasing nuclear weapons from pakistan. there is that concern that this could result in actually instead of eliminating nuclear arms resulting in an arm's race in the middle east. can you comment on that? >> yes, senator, thank you. what's most likely to lead to a nuclear arms race is iran getsing a nuclear weapon. that would open the flood gates and we would go down a path that no one wants to go down. as i suggested earlier, it's our judgment that what iran has done is hardly going to be a model for any other country. i don't think any other country would want to subject itself to the burdens that have been imposed by the international community over the last decade or more for its efforts to pursue a nuclear weapon. the isolation, the sanctions, the state of this economy, t

mr. blinken was very fulsom in his comments about double over. if you could sort of keep it to five, it would be good. thank you. >> certainly. good morning chairman corker ranking member menendez, distinguished members of the committee. thank you for the invitation to appear before you today, and as this is likely my last appearance before this committee before i assume my new duties, i want to thank former chairman menendez, current chairman corker and members of the committee for the courtesy that has been shown to me over the past several years. i appreciate it. there is no higher national security priority than ensuring iran does not acquire a nuclear weapon. and president obama has made clear that we will do everything in our power to prevent that from happening. for us at treasury that has meant working within the administration with congress and with international partners to impose the most powerful sanctions in history. and in many respects the sanctions have worked exactly as designed. they have driven iran to the negotiating table. be

mr. chairman. and thank you both for being here. you know deputy secretary blinkenertainly share the view that it's important for us to keep our coalition together if we're going to be successful. and one concern that i have is to what extent we're going to be able to do that given what's happening with russia. i wonder if you could talk a little bit about what russia is doing today. there's a notice of an agreement that iran and russia have just signed and clearly the sanctions that we have taken against russia over ukraine seems like it's going to have an impact on what's happening are iran. can you talk about russia's willingness to be part of this effort and to what extent we're seeing their commitment being reduced or not. >> at least as of this moment, what we have seen in the context of the negotiations with iran is russia continuing to play a constructive role. and i can see how that would be surprising and indeed one of the things that i think was a concern was whether russia would because of what we are doing to impose severe penalties for its actions in u

mr. chairman. and thank you both for being here. you know, deputy secretary blinkeni certainly share the view that it's important for us to keep our coalition together if we're going to be successful. and one concern that i have is to what extent we're going to be able to do that given what's happening with russia. i wonder if you could talk a little bit about what russia is doing today. there's a notice of an agreement that iran and russia have just signed and clearly the sanctions that we have taken against russia over ukraine seems like it's going to have an impact on what's happening are iran. can you talk about russia's willingness to be part of this effort and to what extent we're seeing their commitment being reduced or not. >> at least as of this moment, what we have seen in the context of the negotiations with iran is russia continuing to play a constructive role. and i can see how that would be surprising and indeed one of the things that i think was a concern was whether russia would because of what we are doing to impose severe penalties for its actions i

mr. chairman. secretary blinken much of this debate has been about the role of congress and our need to trust in thethe administration to craft a good deal and in the fact we're going to be consulted. that was the question you asked. i want to take you back to the last time you were before this committee and i asked you a question at that time during your nomination about whether there would be any unilateral changes or changes in cuba policy. and your answer, and i want to quote it to you, it said, "anything that in the future might be done on cubanocp will be done in full consultation with the real meaning of the word "consultation" that i you just alluded to with this committee." you told me that the last time you were before this committee. who did you consult with on this committee? or who did the administration consult with on this committee before it announced the changes on the 17th of december? >> senator i regrt that i did not live up to the standard i set during that hearing and the remarks you just quoted. i think that i could have done a better job in engaging with you and consulting wi