Congressman: US should nuke Iran nuclear facilities if needed

A hawkish US congressman calls on Washington to use “tactical nuclear weapons” to destroy Iranian nuclear facilities if military action becomes necessary.
Congressman: US should nuke Iran nuclear facilities if needed
In an interview with C-SPAN on Wednesday morning, House Armed Services Committee member Rep. Duncan Hunter warned Tehran with a military attack despite a nuclear agreement.

When asked whether attacking Iran is inevitable, the Republican lawmaker said, “I sure as Hell hope not.”

However, he suggested that in case of military action, any American strike would be a “massive aerial bombing campaign,” the Army Times reported.

Hunter said the potential military strike should not feature any “boots on ground” and the US should use its “tactical nuclear weapons” on Iranian targets.

He also lashed out at the nuclear agreement sealed between Iran and six major powers in Geneva on November 24.

“Iran has to do nothing,” Hunter said, adding that the US and other UN Security Council countries made a mistake when they inked the preliminary deal that allows Tehran to enrich uranium.

Citing the Iran deal, the Republican lawmaker said the Obama administration is “making friends with our former enemies” while purposely distancing America from allies in the Middle East especially Israel and Saudi Arabia.

Last week, another Republican member of the House of Representatives, Rep. Michele Bachmann said Iran’s nuclear facilities “must be bombed.”

Republican lawmakers have started an anti-Iran campaign to formally challenge President Barack Obama over the nuclear agreement with Iran.

House Republicans are considering several possible responses to the agreement. One option would be pressuring the Senate to consider new sanctions on Iran and the other would be including language in a bill to formally express disapproval of the deal.

Meanwhile, Kingston Reif of the Center for Arms Control and Non-proliferation said that “the preventative, first-use of nuclear weapons against Iran would have a devastating impact on US national security and dismember US power and standing in the world.”

“That a senior Republican member of the House Armed Services Committee is even suggesting such a possible course of action is the height of reckless irresponsibility and so far out of bounds it is astonishing,” Reif said.