Cotton: Congress Should Arm Israel for Strike on Iran

Senator-elect Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) on Wednesday called on Congress to take a “serious look” at supplying Israel with surplus B-52 bomber planes and bunker buster super bombs for a potential strike on Iran’s clandestine nuclear sites.

Cotton said that as the Obama administration pursues diplomacy with Iran in light of another extension in the nuclear negotiations, Congress should be stepping up pressure on Tehran and considering the “credible use a force,” a policy that would include arming Israel with the advanced technology needed to strike at Iran’s nuclear sites.

“In my opinion, the negotiations were a grievous mistake from the beginning, and they quickly became a sham; now they’re a farce,” Cotton told a group of reporters on the sidelines of the Foreign Policy Initiative’s (FPI) annual forum.

Congress must step up early next year “to reimpose the sanctions” on Iran that have been lifted by executive order by the Obama administration, Cotton said.

Any congressional action related to Iran “has to be, obviously, backed by credible use of force,” he said, adding that Congress should take a “serious look” at providing to the Israeli military hardware necessary to carry out a strike on Iran.

This would include high-tech B-52 bomber planes, as well as 30,000-pound bunker buster bombs that are capable of penetrating deep into Iran’s fortified and underground nuclear research sites.

This type of move could “send the right signal to our allies in the region and to the regime in Iran,” Cotton said.

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