During the Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Wednesday, Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-NE) questioned Allison Hooker, the nominee for Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, regarding the increasing nuclear threat posed by Iran.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to each of our nominees for your willingness to serve our great nation.
00:06And I want to also thank your families as well, because we know that this is a sacrifice for them as well as you work on behalf of our country.
00:14So thank you for being here.
00:17A recent UN report revealed that Iran now holds enough 60% enriched uranium to produce six nuclear weapons.
00:25And Iran has no plans to slow production.
00:28This not only threatens the U.S. and Israel's security, but global security at large.
00:33For years, Iran has been in continuous violation of UN Security Council Resolution 2231 that was endorsed to the JCPOA.
00:42I commend President Trump for swiftly reinstating maximum pressure on Iran,
00:48which directed the next UN ambassador to work with the E3 on the snapback UN sanctions on Iran.
00:56This would reimpose fully the panoply of UN sanctions previously levied on Iran.
01:03All UN member states would legally be required to implement these sanctions.
01:07While the authority to snapback expires October 18th, the real deadline is much sooner due to the length of time for the process to play out.
01:15The need to conduct the snapback under favorable UN Security Council leadership and the role of the snapback in the upcoming negotiations with Iran.
01:24Ms. Zucker, I recently introduced a resolution with 18 co-sponsors calling for the E3 to initiate snapback as soon as possible.
01:32Rather than wait until June to snapback as the E3 has indicated it will do,
01:37I believe snapping back sanctions now will allow the West to deal with Tehran from the strongest possible position.
01:43Do you agree with that?
01:46Thank you, Senator, for your question and for your interest in the matter.
01:49If confirmed, I look forward to learning more about where the administration is and implementing maximum pressure,
01:57which the president has stated will be necessary to implement towards Iran.
02:02And I look forward to using diplomacy to ensure that our allies and partners around the world will be implementing maximum pressure as well.
02:10Great. Thanks.
02:11Last year, Swedish Prime Minister Christensen said something that we thought was very apt.
02:15He said, if we want the U.S. to be committed to Europe, we need to realize that the U.S. has other concerns as well.
02:24Ms. Zucker, what signal do you believe stronger pressure from other European allies against the Iranian regime would send to President Trump?
02:32Do you believe it would help strengthen transatlantic ties?
02:37Thank you, Senator, for that question.
02:39Maximum pressure is going to be necessary on Iran going forward.
02:46And not being in the seat yet, I don't have privy to where we are in those discussions.
02:53But if I am confirmed, I look forward to learning more about that and ensuring that we're doing what we can to get our European allies and partners to do their part.
03:05Well, given that, again, you're not in the seat yet, but what's your feel?
03:10Do you think that if we see our European allies actually showing greater resolve toward places like Iran that are outside of Europe, that would help the transatlantic alliance?
03:22Thank you, Senator, for that question.
03:26I think cooperation from our European allies would be helpful in signaling.
03:30And I look forward to once, if confirmed, I look forward to having those conversations.
03:37And just to the topic of maximum pressure, under the last Trump administration, Iran's foreign reserves fell from about $122.5 billion to less than $14 billion because of those sanctions.
03:48And that's the kind of results we need to see this time around as well from the maximum pressure by making sure that Iran's not got the money to be able to support the terrorism they've done around the world.
04:02In 2017, after the Quad revival under President Trump, China's foreign minister dismissed it as a sea of foam in the ocean.
04:10And yet, eight years later, Secretary Rubio's first official day, on his first official day, he met with our Quad counterparts, illustrating the group's continued importance.
04:20Under the Biden administration, the Quad grew from senior-level security dialogue to leader-level summits.
04:26However, summit agendas also grew with an ever-expanding list of initiatives and working groups, but not necessarily no clear priorities.
04:35So, as co-chair of the Senate Quad caucus with Senator Duckworth, I was pleased that the January joint statement clearly and succinctly emphasized security cooperation while also indirectly calling out Communist China's malign aggression.
04:51This bolder posture is critical for the Quad to remain relevant.
04:56It also proves the Quad is a force for good and stability in the region.
04:59Ms. Hooker, do you believe that the Quad can and should place a greater emphasis on hard security cooperation?
05:08Thank you, Senator, for that question.
05:10As you noted, the Quad was revived under President Trump during his first term, and I see it as one of the greatest successes of his first term, is reviving that relationship.
05:21If confirmed, I look forward to supporting the President and the Secretary in advancing the work of the Quad across a broad area.
05:32I'm not privy to exactly what we're going to be, what's being discussed right now, but going forward, if confirmed, I look forward to doing that and happy to be back in touch with the committee on that.
05:43Great. Well, thank you very much, Ms. Hooker.
05:45Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
05:45I want to ask Mr. DiNano, let me ask you some more.
05:54I'm sorry.
05:54All right.