On Tuesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Situation Room,” Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-FL) said that he would have preferred a demonstration that the United States can open the Strait of Hormuz regardless of Iran’s behavior, but noted that doing so would have taken time.
Gimenez said, “I would have rather had seen us demonstrate that we can open the straits regardless of what Iran does and kept the pressure going and — before we settled on the negotiations. But we have a deal. I don’t know what the deal says. And so, we’re anxiously waiting to see what are the details of that deal and what are the safeguards of that deal and the verification process for that deal.”
He added, “I think that it would have taken some time to do that. I thought we were on our way. The president said that a number of ships were able to make it through the straits, escorted by American warships, etc., and we needed to degrade more of their capability to hit those ships in the Strait. And I think we could have done that. It’s just a matter of time. And so I think the president wanted to get this over with as quickly as he could. Look, the number one — there are two issues that we have to make sure are in this deal: Number one, Iran never, ever has the ability to acquire a nuclear weapon. That’s foremost in my mind. Second is that Iran will never close the Straits of Hormuz, that the Strait of Hormuz need[s] to be open to commerce without any tolls. Those are the top two things that we have to get out of this deal, and then a verification process. And we also have to keep, basically, our hands around their throat economically, so that any time that they stray from that deal, that we can tighten economic sanctions, maybe reimpose a blockade, but Iran has to understand that we have the will to do that. And we have to demonstrate that we have the will to do that. And then, hopefully, they will act accordingly. I don’t trust them at all. The only way to deal with Iran is through the use of strength and force to force them into compliance. Let’s see what this deal says about that.”
Gimenez also said the U.S. and Arab countries can hit Iran’s weak point on Kharg Island.
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