Iran Needs To Do Two Things To ‘Actually Survive’: Tom Cotton

Iran should pursue a peaceful resolution and end its nuclear program because the United States has a lot more targets from which to choose, Senate Intelligence Chairman Tom Cotton (R-AR) said on Sunday.

Cotton told ABC’s Jonathan Karl on “This Week” that the supreme leader and the Ayatollahs in Iran need to understand that President Donald Trump “means business” after ordering strikes on three of Tehran’s facilities this weekend to prevent the regime from obtaining nuclear weapons.

“They have a chance to sue for peace here, to dismantle whatever remnants of their nuclear program remain, and to continue to actually survive,” Cotton said. “Because we haven’t targeted the supreme leader; we haven’t targeted their energy infrastructure. We haven’t targeted other critical infrastructure. That’s an implicit message that Iran still has things that they hold dear that neither the United States nor Israel has struck.”

Cotton said the military strikes “severely damaged” Iran’s “critical nuclear infrastructure,” which he noted Trump had warned for 10 years he would do if Tehran got close to achieving a nuclear weapon.

“Remember, this is a regime in Iran that has terrorized Americans for 46 years,” Cotton said. “For 25 years, American presidents have worried about them getting a nuclear weapon, have said that they’d never be allowed to. Finally, President Trump has taken decisive action to ensure that they’re not going to get nuclear weapons on his watch.”

Cotton also said the United States should be “prepared” for Iran to retaliate.

“I join the president in his warning to the supreme leader of Iran, that if he targets Americans, the military force he will see, will make last night look like child’s play,” Cotton said. “We have troops in the region. Iran has targeted Americans around the world and Marine barracks in Beirut and barracks in Saudi Arabia. They’ve targeted embassies of countries around the world. For all we know, they may have gotten sleeper cells into the country during Joe Biden’s wide-open border.”

He added: “So, the threats are serious, and we take them seriously. President Trump has no higher priority, as do I, than the safety of the American people.”