On January 18, Governor Nikki Haley (R-SC) testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on her nomination to be ambassador to the United Nations in the Trump administration. She called the U.N. Security Council endorsement of the nuclear deal with Iran a “huge disappointment” and said the new administration would need “to do a lot of things to fix what’s happened.” But Haley did not advocate for pulling out of the agreement. The following are excerpts from the hearing related to Iran.
Governor Nikki Haley (R-SC)
“In the past ten years, the Human Rights Council has passed 62 Resolutions condemning the reasonable actions Israel takes to defend its security. Meanwhile, the world’s worst human rights abusers in Syria, Iran, and North Korea, received far fewer condemnations. This cannot continue.”
“I think I’ve been on record that I think that it was a huge disappointment. I think that it created more of a threat. And I think that we are going to have to do a lot of things to fix what’s happened.”
“I think what would be more beneficial [than unilaterally pulling out of the deal] at this point is that we look at all the details of the Iran deal. We see if they are actually in compliance. If we find that there are violations then we act on those violations. And I think that in watching that very closely, it’s important. What we did is we gave the state sponsor of terrorism a pass. That even after ten years they will not be held to even any sort of sanctions on building nuclear weapons. And we gave them billions of dollars to do it. So I believe that if that has passed, and if that is where it is, we need to hold them accountable and watch them as we go forward.”
“Well first of all, with the Iran Deal, the fact that Russia and China were supportive was the Red Flag that I need to know that there is a problem with the deal. And I think that we have to be very conscious of that.”
“I think we have to call out anyone who is helping Iran do anything. And I think that the other side of that is we are seeing more and more where Iran is not allowing us access to see if violations are occurring. And that is also something that we are going to have to be wary of.”