The chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee stated Sunday that the United States should “be ready for Iran to retaliate” following Saturday night time’s strikes focusing on three Iranian nuclear amenities.
“We now have troops within the area. Iran has focused People world wide, Marine barracks in Beirut, in barracks in Saudi Arabia. They’ve focused embassies of nations world wide,” Cotton, R-Arkansas, stated in an unique interview on ABC Information’ “This Week.” “The threats are critical and we take them severely. President Trump has no greater precedence, as do I and the protection of the American folks.”
Cotton echoed President Donald Trump’s warning to Iran to go for peace as a substitute, saying that if Ayatollah Ali Khamenei “targets People with army pressure, he’ll see, will make final night time appear like kid’s play.”
Trump described Saturday night time’s strikes in opposition to Iran as “a spectacular army success” that had “utterly and completely obliterated” Iran’s key nuclear enrichment amenities.
Sen. Tom Cotton speaks with ABC Information whereas showing on This Week, June 22, 2025.
ABC Information
In his interview with “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl, Cotton stated the total harm evaluation was nonetheless underway, citing feedback from Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. Dan Caine earlier Sunday. However, he added, “There isn’t any doubt that due to the president’s decisive motion, now we have severely broken Iran’s vital nuclear infrastructure.”
“The supreme chief and the ayatollahs in Iran want to know that President Trump means enterprise. They’ve an opportunity to sue for peace right here, to dismantle no matter remnants of their nuclear program stay, and to proceed to really survive, as a result of we’ve not focused the supreme chief, we’ve not focused their power infrastructure, we’ve not focused different vital infrastructure,” Cotton stated. “That is an implicit message that Iran nonetheless has issues that they maintain pricey, that neither the — neither the USA nor Israel has struck. Iran must heed President Trump’s warning.”
“And if Iran retaliates, ought to the USA goal the supreme chief?” Karl requested.
“I will not rule any single goal in or out,” Cotton stated. “He [Trump] was not bluffing. He doesn’t bluff. And there are nonetheless quite a few targets that Iran holds very pricey. … My message to the Supreme Chief is have a look at the teachings of historical past. Don’t — don’t tempt destiny. Don’t goal People. Heed Donald Trump’s warning.”
Karl pressed additional on whether or not regime change in Iran is the aim.
“That is not President Trump’s army goal,” Cotton stated. “We’re not pursuing regime change. We’re not making an attempt to place any troops on the bottom into Iran. We try to remove their nuclear weapons program, and by destroying three vital nuclear amenities, we have taken enormous steps in that path.”
However again in 2017, the Arkansas senator informed POLITICO, “The coverage of the USA ought to be regime change in Iran. … I don’t see how anybody can say America will be protected so long as you could have in energy a theocratic despotism.”
“Has your view modified?” Karl requested.
“Properly, so long as Iran’s leaders proceed to terrorize People after these strikes, then no, America will not be protected from the Iran menace. That is the purpose that President Trump made final night time,” Cotton stated. “We’re not going to invade Iran. We’re not going to attempt to topple their authorities or attempt to change it with a brand new authorities. As [Israeli] Prime Minister Netanyahu has stated, the Iranian leaders are so hated by their very own folks, have so didn’t ship constructive outcomes for their very own folks, that that may be the tip of this. However that is not the American coverage.”
