Washington D.C. (WISH) - Senator Evan Bayh took the national stage Sunday on Iran. He told CNN, there's really only one thing that'll get Iran to cooperate.

On CNN's State of the Union, Sen. Evan Bayh addressed what he thinks will work against Iran now reportedly harboring a nuclear weapons program.

"We've tried a variety of inducements to Iranians over the years being included in the global economic trading system and a number of other things and frankly none of that has worked. What they respect more than anything is strength," Sen. Bayh said.

The senator said the Iranians don't respond to weak appeals only forceful displays from other nations, "The one time the Iranians have actually reached out to us behind the scenes and offered to be cooperative is was following the invasion in Iraq where we had invaded first Afghanistan, then Iraq and they began to think, Whoa are we next?"

Bayh, who is on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said sanctions could work, but the U.S. can't go it alone.

"The problem is for sanctions to be effective, you've got to get the Chinese and the Russians on board. That may take a little time. So if it's just us and our Western European allies, we could do that very quickly, but the Chinese are now providing a third of the gasoline for Iran. That really is their achilles heel. And so, for that to be effective, you really need the Chinese to come to the table and they're notoriously slow to in these things," said Sen. Bayh .

The Senator said the Russians may also take time to go along with sanctions against Iran. Currently, inspectors are waiting to move in on Iran.

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