Washington –Senator Evan Bayh today issued a joint statement with Senators Joe Lieberman and Jon Kyl on the discovery of a secret nuclear facility in Iran, saying, “We must leave no doubt that we are prepared to do whatever it takes to stop Iran's nuclear breakout.”

       Bayh, along with Lieberman and Kyl, has authored the toughest economic sanctions legislation to date against the Iranian regime to pressure Iran to change course, comply with international law, and suspend its nuclear program, as demanded by multiple United Nations Security Council resolutions. The Bayh legislation, the Iran Refined Petroleum Sanctions Act (S. 908), has 75 Senate cosponsors.

       The Bayh bill would give President Obama expanded authority to impose severe economic penalties on foreign firms involved in the export of gasoline and other refined petroleum products to the Islamic Republic of Iran, including a ban on doing business in the United States. Iran currently lacks the refining capacity to meet domestic consumption and must import as much as 40 percent of its gasoline from abroad. During the presidential campaign, President Obama endorsed the strategy of using Iran’s dependence on foreign gasoline imports as leverage in the existing nuclear dispute.

        The joint statement from Senators Bayh, Lieberman, and Kyl follows:

       "The discovery that Iran has been hiding a secret uranium enrichment facility adds fierce new urgency to the collective, comprehensive effort to stop Iran's nuclear breakout.

       "For years, Iran has cheated and lied to the world about its nuclear activities and its nuclear ambitions. Just last week, a secret IAEA report was leaked, describing Iran’s covert nuclear weapons work. Now it has been caught red-handed once again. After today, the evidence all points to one inescapable conclusion: Iran is determined to acquire nuclear weapons.

       "Given Iran's consistent pattern of deceit, concealment, and bad faith, the only way to force Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions is to make absolutely clear to the regime in Tehran that its current course will carry catastrophic consequences. We must leave no doubt that we are prepared to do whatever it takes to stop Iran's nuclear breakout.

       "In the absence of immediate compliance by Iran with the IAEA and multiple UN Security Council resolutions, we must act swiftly and decisively to impose crippling new sanctions against Iran. In the Senate, an unprecedented bipartisan majority now supports the Iran Refined Petroleum Sanctions Act -- S. 908 -- which has attracted 76 cosponsors, including both some of the most conservative and most liberal members of this chamber. It is now urgent that our coalition move forward on this bill.

       "As our former colleagues Senators Chuck Robb and Dan Coats recently urged in an important bipartisan report, President Obama must also reaffirm that -- should diplomacy fail -- all options remain on the table.

       "Iran says that it has a right to peaceful civilian energy under the Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT). But the rights accorded by the NPT come with responsibilities, which Iran has systematically and repeatedly flouted. By their own actions, Iran’s leaders have proven why the world cannot trust them to possess the nuclear fuel cycle.

       "As the Senate unanimously affirmed in an amendment we offered to the National Defense Authorization Act this summer, there is now a narrow timetable by which Iran must fully comply with the IAEA and the UN Security Council. Unless it does so and comes completely clean about all its nuclear activities, there must be a presumption of bad faith against Iran -- including in its meeting with the P5+1 on October 1.

       "Until Iran proves otherwise, we must assume the worst about its nuclear intentions and activities -- and act accordingly."

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