Dear Friends,
Last summer, I recorded a video message expressing my disappointment that the president had not used his nuclear agreement with Iran as an opportunity to free the Americans being illegally detained by the Iranian government. At the time, I urged the president to use the economic clout of the West to force the oppressive Iranian Regime into returning Robert Levinson, Amir Hekmati, Jason Rezaian, and Saeed Abedini to America.
The announcement of this past weekend's prisoner swap with Iran to free Amir Hekmati, Jason Rezaian, Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari, and Saeed Abedini was welcome news, and I am extremely grateful they will finally be able to return home to their families and hopefully resume normal lives. However, the prisoner swap is indicative of many of my hesitations about our negotiations with Iran over the past few years.
Returning these men should have been a pillar of the initial agreement. The White House should have made it clear that if the Iranian's wanted any sort of sanctions relief, then as a token of good faith, all Americans being held prisoner in Iran should have been released immediately.
Instead, this was not part of the agreement, these men had to spend even more time as prisoners of Iran, and we gifted the largest state sponsor of terrorism in the world over $100 billion in exchange for their word that they would eliminate all of their nuclear capabilities.
Now, on the same weekend in which we began lifting economic sanctions to Iran, we once again allowed them to make out like bandits by swapping innocent Americans for Iranians convicted of committing crimes in the United States.
The president will refer to this as a win for "diplomacy," but this is not diplomacy; this is the Iranians taking advantage of a weak administration. And they still have two more Americans--Siamak Namazi and Robert Levinson--whom they can now use as leverage in future negotiations.
For the safety of America and our strategic allies throughout the world, it is time the president takes off the kid gloves and starts forcing Iran to do things on our terms, and not the other way around.
As a member of House Financial Services Committee's Task Force to Investigate Terrorism Financing, I will be monitoring closely how Iran spends this infusion of money, and I will work with all my colleagues to stop Iran from advancing their agenda of obtaining nuclear capabilities.
Sincerely,
Representative French Hill |
News for the Week
Conway School Board recognizes USDA grant
Log Cabin Democrat
The Conway Board of Education discussed the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farm-to-School Grant the district received during its regular meeting Tuesday night. Congressman French Hill joined the meeting via a Facetime call just before he entered the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C. for the State of the Union address. “I’m glad to be in Conway virtually to celebrate this grant,” Hill said. “Thanks for inviting me to the meeting tonight. Good luck with the grant.”
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State's D.C. six criticize address
Arkansas Democrat Gazette
Second District U.S. Rep. French Hill of Little Rock liked some of Obama's statements about good citizenship but was less pleased with the policy parts of the speech." My thoughts were that he proposed in a lot of the speech the same kind of central planning, one-size-fits-all, big-government solutions that have failed to engender the support of a majority of the Congress and a good deal of the country...
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