Sen. Ted Cruz questioned Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Andrea L. Thompson during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing. (Reuters)
Ted Cruz questions US State Department official over Iranian nuclear research
Sen. Ted Cruz pressed a US diplomat on Wednesday on why the State Department continues to grant waivers to Iran to continue its nuclear program and enable Tehran to continue research at its fortified Fordow uranium enrichment facility outside Qom.
“How is it possibly in our best interest to allow Iran to continue doing nuclear research in the Fordow bunker that was built into the side of a mountain to be able to develop nuclear weapons to use to murder Americans? How is that in our best interest?” Cruz asked Andrea L. Thompson, the Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing.
Known as Fordow, the site holds a uranium enrichment facility built inside a mountain near the city of Qom.
The @StateDept is allowing #Iran to continue doing research in their nuclear bunker at Fordow, which Iran dug into the side of a mountain to build nuclear weapons. They are unwilling to explain to the American people why they’re doing it. pic.twitter.com/j8L2YvPAgI
— Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) May 15, 2019
After Thompson replied saying she would answer Cruz’s question privately, the Texas senator followed up by saying that his constituents and the public deserved an answer.
“With all respect, the American people care deeply about this. So I am perfectly happy to have classified briefings, but whether we are allowing Iran to do nuclear weapons in a bunker designed to create weapons of mass destruction to murder Americans is an issue of concern to 28 million Texans,” Cruz said.
