US sanctions are the way to go in handling Iran threat: Rep Mike Turner
House Armed Services Committee Member Mike Turner, R-Ohio, told FOX Business he sees sanctions as the most effective tool in dealing with the threat of Iran.
“[Secretary of State] Pompeo, through his maximum pressure campaign, is using all options of sanctions, working with allies, working with our international partners to place pressure on Iran, and that is certainly the way to go,” Turner said during an interview on "Cavuto: Coast to Coast" Monday.
Rep. Turner said Iran is clearly trying to show the international community their displeasure that their economy is tanking and not growing as a result of U.S. sanctions.
A spokesman for Iran's atomic energy agency said on Monday that Iran will exceed the limit on its stockpile of uranium within 10 days. Under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action that the U.S. withdrew from a year ago, Iran can hold onto no more than 300 kilograms of uranium that is enriched no higher than 3.67 percent.
“We have quadrupled the rate of enrichment and even increased it more recently, so that in 10 days it will bypass the 300 kg limit," Behrouz Kamalvandi, a spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, said.
Kamalvandi also warned Iran could enrich uranium up to 20 percent, just below weapons-grade level.
Turner said he has spoken with U.S. energy officials who warned that Iran “has been doing a number of things” that appear to be approaching or in preparation for breaking the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action reached in 2015.
“It's somewhat been anticipated that they were going to be going down this path, but, as you know, the deal had three major flaws. It was limited in its time period, it did not include missiles, it did not include maligned activities that the administration has been concerned about, and it also had a very limited inspection regime,” he said.
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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Fox News on Sunday that the U.S. is "considering a full range of options" regarding rising tensions with Iran, including military options, but emphasized that President Trump has said he does not want to go to war.