On Wednesday, March 4, 2026, Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, delivered the following remarks on the House floor on Iran:

              Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished gentleman for yielding.

              Mr. Speaker, for far too long, Iran has held the world hostage with its nuclear threats, unbridled violence and hate, pervasive use of torture and rape, and Nazi-like anti-Semitism.

              Iran is the world’s worst state sponsor of terrorism. All diplomatic initiatives to secure peace, justice, and reconciliation with the Iranian dictatorship have been fruitless.

              President Trump is a man of his word, and he means it when he says that Iran must never be permitted to acquire a nuclear weapon. Despite ample warnings and admonishments to negotiate seriously, which it has never done, Iran has defied U.S. diplomacy to end its decades-long quest to procure nuclear weapons and cease its despicable violence against Americans, Israelis, and the Iranians themselves.

              Among the many egregious concessions made in 2015 by President Obama to the Iranians was to get a deal which included removal of a treaty obligation that would have ended Iran’s missile program and prevent the production of the ballistic missiles that are today raining down on our American military in the region, Israeli civilians, and our friends in neighboring countries.

              In debate on the House floor in 2015, I stood right here and said: Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei criticized the call for Iran to end its ballistic missile program, characterizing it as a stupid and idiotic expectation, claiming that the Revolutionary Guard should definitely carry out their program and not be satisfied with the present level of missiles.

              Khamenei said that they should mass produce those missiles, and mass produce they have, killing thousands and putting millions more at risk. It is estimated that Iran produces 100 missiles each and every month.

              I would remind my colleagues that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action signed by China, France, Germany, Russia, the U.K., and, of course, the United States, the P5+1, had a sunset date of October 18, 2025.

              I remember asking for it during debate in committee and on the floor.

              Sunset? Did anyone think that in 2015 that Iran would somehow matriculate from a brutal dictatorship to a democracy in those 10 years?

              That provided the Iranians the incentive to wait us out because then everything would be lifted even in that flawed deal.

              Let me also point out to my colleagues that the Trump administration has refused—I say again ‘‘refused’’—to have the United States bullied by Iran.

              The distinguished chairman before went through one instance after another where they have killed Americans. Even when they bombed us in Lebanon, there was a young man in the Marines from my district who was killed in that brutal act of war by the Iranian dictatorship.

              I just say that I am against this resolution. May God bless and protect our courageous servicemembers, as well as the idea of soldiers who are fighting this tyrannical Iranian dictatorship with incredible courage, professionalism, skill, and tenacity.

More than ten years ago—on September 10, 2015—Smith spoke on the House floor in opposition to President Obama’s Iran Nuclear Agreement, highlighting the deal’s serious flaws, gaps, and concessions, which have largely contributed to the mass proliferation of Iranian missiles today.

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