Ohio Sen. Rob Portman says he doesn't trust Iran to allow U.N. inspections of its nuclear facilities. After all, he's seen the same situation already in North Korea.
"The North Koreans actually kicked out the U.N. inspectors, the same inspectors now who would be monitoring the stockpile in Iran," Portman said Monday on
Fox News Channel's "Your World with Neil Cavuto."
"If you look at what's happened just in the last year, with, again, these same inspectors and how Iran has thwarted their efforts to effectively monitor what's going on now and look at the militarization part of their program, it doesn't bode well," Portman said.
Better, he said, to get Iran's nuclear material out of the country – something Iran says it doesn't want to do.
Russia, or even the United States, can provide Iran with uranium for a peaceful nuclear power program, the Ohio Republican said.
"We have lots of enriched uranium here in this country. We're happy to provide it," Portman said. "We've done this with other countries."
But Iran clearly wants to keep the stockpile within its own borders to potentially enrich it further and use it for other purposes, Portman said.
"That's a big concern," he told Cavuto. "They also have the heavy water facility with plutonium that is only used for nuclear capabilities. So, all the indications are they're really not willing to make all the kinds of concessions they should be willing to make if they, indeed, are not going to pursue nuclear weapons."
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