JUST IN: RAND PAUL SAYS SANCTIONS ALONE WON'T STOP IRAN'S NUCLEAR AMBITIONS

追加: 2026-06-04

[00:00:00]Rand Paul began by making an argument that many foreign policy experts have debated for years.

[00:00:06]He suggested that sanctions by themselves often fail to achieve their stated goals.

[00:00:13]His point wasn't that sanctions have no impact. His point was that sanctions are most effective when they are used as bargaining chips rather than permanent punishments.

[00:00:23]>> Senator Paul, I'd like to revisit for a moment the boats that were blowing up in the Caribbean and the Pacific that referred to as drug boats. I think [snorts] it's interesting that the three secret criteria we're using to blow up the boats doesn't include whether they have drugs on board. I would like to add that the statistics from the Coast Guard also say that when we interdict alleged drug boats in the historic way, the way we've always done it, about one in four don't have drugs. We make mistakes. We see something suspicious about the boat, we stop them, and they don't have drugs on board. I would also like to add that drugs is not a criteria for blowing up the boats, the boats that are called drug boats, but neither is arms. So, in order to blow them up, we don't have to say that they're armed or have drugs, and I think a lot of people would have questions, which I still do.

[00:01:03]I am glad to hear today though that the administration and the negotiations are willing to trade sanctions relief for removal of enriched uranium.

[00:01:12]I've said for a long time and argued for a long time that sanctions in and of themselves rarely, if ever, are of any value. I've yet to see any Chinese behavior that's changed because of sanctions. I've yet to see any Russian behavior changed because of sanctions.

[00:01:24]I've really yet to see any Iranian behavior changed because of sanctions.

[00:01:27]However, sanctions do have some leverage and ability to exact change if you remove them. So, the removal of sanctions actually might actually have some hope. So, I support the administration in this. Now, there are many Republican critics who've been vocal on the airways recently saying, "Oh, no, we can never negotiate with them. These are terrible people." Well, you don't really negotiate with really friendly, good people. You're, you know, in a time of war, you have to negotiate with an adversary. So, I do commend and and supportive of the idea of this. And the other thing is it's very verifiable. You don't have to wait for verification. You could say the trade sanctions end as soon as we get the 440 kg of enriched uranium.