He spoke about this and other issues regarding Iran during the 2017 Munich Security Conference. He mentioned that holding Iran accountable for its actions is a high priority and measures will be introduced regarding this. Earlier this month, the Iranian regime test-fired ballistic missiles – a flagrant breach of U.N. Security Council resolutions.
He said: “I think it is now time for the Congress to take Iran on directly in terms of what they’ve done outside the nuclear program.”
At the conference, Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) who is part of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that “the proportional response” to the missile testing needs to be discussed.
He said: “I don’t necessarily think there’s going to be partisan division over whether or not we have the ability as a Congress to speak on issues outside of the nuclear agreement.” He added that the United States needs to decide how involved with Iran it will be.
He said: “We have to make a decision whether we are going to get involved in the emerging proxy war in a bigger way than we are today, between Iran and Saudi [Arabia].”
Earlier this month, tensions between the United States and Iran continued to mount after Trump imposed sanctions on 25 individuals and entities. The Foreign Minister of Iran – Mohammed Javad Zarif – said at the conference that Iran does not “respond well” to threats and sanctions.
He said: “We don’t respond well to coercion. We don’t respond well to sanctions, but we respond very well to mutual respect. We respond very well to arrangements to reach mutually acceptable scenarios.”
Senator Graham said: “To Iran, I say, if you want us to treat you differently then stop building missiles, test-firing them in defiance of U.N. resolutions and writing ‘Death to Israel’ on the missile. That’s a mixed message.”
