WASHINGTON, D.C. – At today’s Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, Secretary of State John Kerry, Secretary of the Treasury Jack Lew, Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey testified on how the Iran nuclear deal will affect the military balance in the Middle East.

Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) questioned Chairman Dempsey as to why the United States would have confidence in Iran to give up its nuclear ambitions when the regime is the world’s top state sponsor of terrorism and continues to threaten and make incendiary rhetoric toward the United States and its allies, even after the Administration reached a nuclear weapons deal with Iran.

“Secretary Carter says he believes there is no reason Iran will change [their malign activities]. That’s the Iran terror network, that’s their increasing threat in terms of cyberterrorism, it’s their ballistic missile program, it’s their weapons trafficking,” said Senator Tillis. “And they’re going to continue to expand in the areas where they think they can. They’re people who have violated twenty-seven international agreements or treaties. They have violated some of the terms of the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Some of that language is similar to the agreement that we have here today.”