WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Near East, South Asia, Central Asia and Counterterrorism, on Wednesday spoke at a U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on addressing Iran’s proxy network in the Middle East with former U.S. Special Representative for Iran and Senior Policy Advisor to the Secretary of State Brian Hook.

“I thought your opening remarks sounded a lot more like a campaign speech for Donald Trump's re-election than a sober analysis of the situation on the ground in the region,” Murphy said. “Charitably, they were an attempt to rehabilitate President Trump's Iran policy that was a complete, total failure by every available metric. I wasn't coming to this hearing to rehash our policy towards Iran from 2017 to 2020, but I think it's really important to set the record straight. Because if this committee or the American public gets the impression that what President Trump was doing was working and should be brought back as policy going into the future, we're in real trouble.”

Murphy laid out the failures of the Trump administration’s Iran policy: “Here's the facts. When Donald Trump came into office, Iran was over a year from being able to achieve a nuclear weapon. By the time President Trump left office, that breakout time had dropped to months. When President Trump came to office, proxies of Iran were strong. When he left office, they were just as strong, if not stronger. This idea that Iran stopped sending money to Hezbollah during Trump's presidency is just wrong. $700 million was the annual amount of support delivered from Iran in the middle of Trump's presidency; [and] that's what was being delivered at the end of his presidency. There were no attacks on US forces in Iraq when Donald Trump became president. From 2019 to 2020, attacks on US forces in Iraq increased by 400%. It got so bad that Secretary Pompeo started to close down the embassy in Baghdad because it had become so dangerous. Attacks on US forces raised to epidemic levels from the beginning of Trump's presidency to the end. The anti-Iran coalition wasn't strengthened, it was shattered. We had Russia and China on board with the JCPOA. By the end of the Trump presidency, Europe wasn't supporting our Trump politics, our Iran policy, they were undermining it.”

Murphy continued: “President Trump's policy towards Iran was a disaster. They got closer to a nuclear weapon, their proxies didn't get any weaker, US troops came under attack in a way that they were not prior to Trump's presidency, and our coalition, that had been carefully built around the nuclear agreement, ready to be used to go after Iran's ballistic missile program or their support for proxies, had vanished.”

A full transcript of Murphy’s remarks can be found below:

“Mr. Hook, I appreciate your service to the country. I believe you are a deep patriot. But frankly, I thought your opening remarks sounded a lot more like a campaign speech for Donald Trump's re-election than a sober analysis of the situation on the ground in the region. Charitably, they were an attempt to rehabilitate President Trump's Iran policy that was a complete, total failure by every available metric. I wasn't coming to this hearing to rehash our policy towards Iran from 2017 to 2020, but I think it's really important to set the record straight. Because if this committee or the American public gets the impression that what President Trump was doing was working and should be brought back as policy going into the future, we're in real trouble.

“Here's the facts. When Donald Trump came into office, Iran was over a year from being able to achieve a nuclear weapon. By the time President Trump left office, that breakout time had dropped to months.

“When President Trump came to office, proxies of Iran were strong. When he left office, they were just as strong, if not stronger.

“This idea that Iran stopped sending money to Hezbollah during Trump's presidency is just wrong. $700 million was the annual amount of support delivered from Iran in the middle of Trump's presidency; [and] that's what was being delivered at the end of his presidency.

“There were no attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq when Donald Trump became president. From 2019 to 2020, attacks on US forces in Iraq increased by 400%. It got so bad that Secretary Pompeo started to close down the embassy in Baghdad because it had become so dangerous. Attacks on U.S. forces raised to epidemic levels from the beginning of Trump's presidency to the end.

“The anti-Iran coalition wasn't strengthened – it was shattered. We had Russia and China on board with the JCPOA. By the end of the Trump presidency, Europe wasn't supporting our Iran policy, they were undermining it.

“President Trump's policy towards Iran was a disaster. They got closer to a nuclear weapon, their proxies didn't get any weaker, U.S. troops came under attack in a way that they were not prior to Trump's presidency, and our coalition, that had been carefully built around the nuclear agreement, but ready to be used to go after Iran's ballistic missile program or their support for proxies, had vanished.

“And so, Mr. Hook, let me just ask you about these metrics. And I'll give you a chance to respond and tell me why I'm wrong. I mean, let me just give you four, and just tell me why I'm wrong about this. Iran was closer to a nuclear weapon at the end of Trump's presidency than at the beginning. Iran’s proxies were at least just as strong, if not stronger. Here's another stat: In 2016, there were five Houthi attacks against Saudi Arabia in the UAE. By 2020, those attacks were averaging 25 a year. Third, Iran was threatening US troops in the region by the end of Trump's presidency in a way that did not exist in 2016. And fourth, the anti-Iran coalition was weaker, not stronger. Am I wrong about any of those things? I don't think I am.”

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