The Hill, 30 July 2015
Around 30 lawmakers have so far signed on to a House letter demanding the White House get a hold of so-called “side deals” negotiated as part of the Iranian nuclear agreement and hand them over to Congress.
The letter, which is still being circulated, claims that the Obama administration’s failure to hand over the details of the bilateral deals between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) would violate legislation passed by Congress to review the deal.
“Congress’s legal right to these documents creates a corresponding legal obligation for your administration to provide them for our review,” lawmakers wrote in the letter. The letter is being organized by Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.), who has scolded the administration over the deals.
The number of signatories is only likely to grow, since the letter just began circulating on Wednesday.
GOP leaders in both chambers have signaled outrage about the deals, sensing what could be an effective attack against the Iran agreement.
“The administration needs to turn over the side agreements without delay,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on the Senate floor on Thursday.
In addition to the core agreement signed by negotiators from the U.S., Iran and five other world powers this month, which seeks to limit Iran’s nuclear ability in exchange for the rollback of sanctions, Iran also signed a pair of bilateral agreements with the IAEA. Those deals cover the Parchin military facility and possible military dimensions of Iran’s past nuclear program.
The Obama administration has maintained that there are no “secret” or “side” deals.
Instead, the Iran-IAEA agreements are standard practice in arms control compacts. U.S. officials may not have been handed the text of the deals, but they have been fully briefed and feel comfortable with what’s in them, administration officials have said. Secretary of State John Kerry, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and others have relayed those briefings to members of Congress.
But some lawmakers say that’s not enough.
The Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act — which passed unanimously in March — gives Congress access to all “annexes, appendices, codicils, side agreements, implementing materials, documents, and guidance, technical or other understandings and any related agreements” as part of the deal.
The bilateral agreements fall under that umbrella, they claim.
“Members of congress have the right and the duty to review every relevant document, every term, and every word of this agreement in order to make an informed decision about whether or not it merits our support,” they said in the letter
