WASHINGTON, Sept. 27 (UPI) -- A Republican U.S. senator said Sunday Iran's latest missile test shows that the world should immediately move on to sanctions rather than try to negotiate.
Sen. Christopher Bond of Missouri, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, called the test a "poke in the eye" to the Obama administration and other proponents of negotiations with the Islamic Republic.
"We have to have sanctions -- strong sanctions, economic sanctions that can force either regime change or the ayatollahs to change their policy," Bond said on "Fox News Sunday."
Bond is a co-sponsor of legislation that would impose sanctions on Iran's international financial transactions and on tankers transporting Iranian petroleum.
Bond conceded that such sanctions would require cooperation from China and Russia, which have been reluctant to squeeze Iran over its nuclear program.
