Washington Examiner, 27 July 2015
Republicans and many Democrats were already skeptical of a long-awaited nuclear agreement with Iran when they got word last week that the accord included two “side deals” that had not been seen by anyone in Congress.
The news has left Republicans more determined than ever to block the agreement, formally knows as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, and has given undecided lawmakers more reason to doubt the accord.
Congress has begun a 60 day review period, after which they will vote on whether to approve or disapprove of the nuclear deal.
“Unless Congress gets the content of these agreements,” Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark. said during an interview on MSNBC last week, “I don’t see how anyone in Congress can vote for this deal because it is based on verification and inspection, and without that information I don’t see how we can trust the government of Iran.”
The deals were first exposed by Cotton and Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kan., who learned about them during a meeting with the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna earlier this month.
They fall outside of the overall agreement, which lifts sanctions against Iran in exchange for the Islamic republic reducing its capacity to produce a nuclear weapon.
According to Cotton, the IAEA told the lawmakers that they had secured additional agreements with Iran, separate from nuclear deal, that would govern inspections of Iran’s secretive Parchin Military Complex, which has been suspected of producing both long-range ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons. According to Cotton and Pompeo, Iran also worked out an agreement with the IAEA on “outstanding questions on past weaponizing work.”
The United States will not be permitted to review the side deals.
Republican lawmakers have accused the Obama administration of obscuring the side deals form Congress, while GOP leaders in the House and Senate have demanded details of the arrangement in a joint letter to the Obama administration.