Floor Remarks by Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa
Senate President Pro Tempore
“U.S. National Security – Iran”
Monday, May 18, 2026
This year, at my 99 county meetings, I’ve been asked about the operation in Iran and was asked the question of why the administration’s actions were necessary.
For starters, there’s historic reasons why the U.S. must address [the] threat of Iran.
“Death to America,” we hear from over there, and that is “death” to individual Americans.
Just recently, last week, for instance, there was an Iraqi indicted, captured overseas [and] brought to the United States because his sole purpose was to kill people, including even here in America.
[If you] go back to 1979...Iranian revolutionaries almost immediately seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and held 52 Americans hostage for [444] days.
One of those foreign service officers was a native of Waverly, Iowa.
Four years later, Iranian-backed terrorist groups carried out a suicide car bombing at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut and drove two truck bombs into the Marine Corps barracks in Beirut, killing over 250 Americans.
In 1996, the Iranian regime carried out another truck bombing near a U.S. Air Force housing complex in Saudi Arabia, killing 19 Americans and wounding more than 370.
In 2007, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps carried out a plot in Iraq that killed five members of the U.S. Armed Forces and wounded three others.
And then, we all know how destructive the bomb that we call “the improvised explosive device” [was], that was buried…and killed about 600 American service people and wounded many others.
Now what’s more, is that the regime also continues its efforts to build nuclear weapons.
In 2003, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) revealed Iran had engaged in a variety of clandestine nuclear-related activities.
In 2005, the IAEA Board of Governors found Iran in noncompliance with [the] agency’s safeguards agreement.
In 2014, the Director of National Intelligence reported to Congress that Iran had made substantial progress with its nuclear program.
In 2025, the IAEA declared that Iran had enough enriched uranium just short of weapons grade to potentially make nine nuclear bombs.
So, Iran is not a distant or theoretical threat – it’s a direct U.S. national security concern.
A nuclear-capable Iran would be able to expand its support for global terrorism, threaten American forces across the region and put our allies at immediate risk.
Over time, Iran’s capability could extend beyond the region, increasing the risk to the American homeland itself.
This presents a clear threat that the United States could not afford to ignore.
I am happy that President Trump took action to address this threat that seven previous presidents did not consider necessary, and I remain hopeful that a long-lasting peace agreement can soon be reached.
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