House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Mich., isn't buying Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's claim that his country has never had nuclear weapons ambitions and never will.
"In the Midwest vernacular, horse pucky," Rogers said Monday on CNN's "The Situation Room."
Rouhani made the statement Monday during his address to the U.N. General Assembly in New York.
Iran has been and continues to be aggressive in pursuing and accelerating its nuclear program, Rogers said. Rouhani was chief negotiator for Iran's nuclear program before becoming president earlier this year.
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The Telegraph, in 2006, reported that Rouhani had bragged about stalling E.U. negotiators while continuing to build up the program.
Oil-rich Iran has always insisted it is working on a nuclear power program, and has no desire to build a nuclear weapons arsenal.
"They've been masterful at trying to draw this thing out while they're continuing to pursue the advancement of their nuclear weapons program," Rogers told CNN's Wolf Blitzer.
Rogers said President Barack Obama did the right thing by not meeting with Rouhani at the U.N. General Assembly this week. Instead, Secretary of State John Kerry should ensure Iran is bringing a real proposal to the table before agreeing to any meeting, he said.
U.N. sanctions are taking a bite, Rogers said. "This is no time to let up. This is no time to give them any breathing space."
Rogers said Iran should immediately suspend its "over 20 percent enrichment" of uranium, open the Fordow underground uranium enrichment facility to U.N. inspectors and start surrendering pieces of its program designed to be part of nuclear weapons program. Anything else, he said, is a stalling tactic.
"Meetings to have negotiations for other meetings is not going to stop their surreptitious program to develop a nuclear weapon," Rogers said.
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