Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID), the incoming chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, expressed doubt in a recent interview with The Free Press that Iran would try to obtain a nuclear weapon or that the United States would need to act to take out Iran’s nuclear program. 

“I don’t think we need to finish [Iran] off. They’re finishing themselves off,” Risch said. “They talk about it, but where’s the nuclear weapon? They could have had one a long time ago.”

“I think they are deterred,” he added of Tehran. 

Reached by Jewish Insider for clarification, a spokesperson for Risch said that he supports the U.S. taking part in an Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear program and provided additional comments he made in the interview about neutralizing the nuclear threat. 

“A nuclear weapon is not that hard to come by, generating nuclear power is very complex and hard to do but [not] a nuclear weapon,” Risch told The Free Press, according to the transcript released by his office. “They are not that complicated to make. If they wanted one they’d have one by now. Why haven’t they had one? [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu has said, Israel has said, ‘Iran will never have a nuclear weapon,’ and they’re right on that. They cannot stand still and allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon, and I think for that reason Iran has not pursued a nuclear weapon.”

Risch argued that Iran knows it would face consequences for obtaining nuclear capabilities, and those consequences act as a deterrent. 

“Oh, I think they are deterred,” Risch told The Free Press. “They talk about it, they bluff, they bluster, they say they’re going to do this. In Russia they say the same thing, ‘We’re going to get our nuclear weapons if Ukraine does the wrong thing.’ It never happens.”

The comments come as speculation mounts about how President-elect Donald Trump and congressional Republicans will approach Iran. While Republicans have numerous legislative efforts in the works to address domestic antisemitism and target institutions that go after Israel, how the incoming Congress will respond to acts of Iranian aggression remains to be seen. 

The second Trump administration is expected to reimpose the “maximum-pressure” sanctions policy against Iran that it utilized during Trump’s first term. Trump has also expressed interest in a new diplomatic agreement with Iran, though it is not clear what such a deal would look like.