Revelations of hidden side deals on crucial aspects of the nuclear agreement with Iran are keeping opponents’ hopes up through the August congressional recess, although it’s becoming more clear that lawmakers won’t be able to block its implementation.
Overwhelming Republican support is likely to propel a resolution of disapproval to adoption by both chambers when Congress votes on the deal in September. But President Obama has promised to veto it, and Republicans are falling short of the Democratic support they need to override him.
Joe Donnelly of Indiana, a Democratic senator seen as a likely swing vote, declared his support for the deal on Wednesday, reducing the chances Republicans in that chamber would have enough votes to overcome the veto. The odds of finding 44 House Democrats for a veto override are even longer, even though a 12th Democrat joined opponents on Tuesday.
An Associated Press report Wednesday that appeared to confirm Iran will be allowed to conduct its own inspections at a sensitive nuclear site gave deal opponents new hope of gaining the needed support from undecided lawmakers, and perhaps even changing a few minds. Citing a draft copy of a side agreement between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency, the AP said Iran would be allowed to use its own inspectors at the Parchin military base, where it’s widely believed illicit nuclear weapons work was done in the past, a highly unusual step.
The confidential side agreement has become a major controversy, with lawmakers demanding access to it and the IAEA refusing to share it, though the agency’s director general, Yukiya Amano, did brief members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on its contents on Aug. 5. The Obama administration, which also has not seen the final deal, has supported the U.N. nuclear watchdog’s desire to keep the side deal confidential and insisted it is confident in the agency’s ability to certify Iran’s compliance with its outstanding requests by the Dec. 15 deadline set in the nuclear deal. That certification is the key to giving Iran relief from international sanctions under the deal worked out July 14 in Vienna.
“International inspections should be done by international inspectors. Period,” said House Foreign Affairs Chairman Ed Royce, R-Calif. “For weeks, Congress has been demanding access to this document to assess the viability of the inspections measures. Congress must now consider whether this unprecedented arrangement will keep Iran from cheating. This is a dangerous farce.”
“It is absolutely unacceptable, yet revealing, that we are now learning about the contents of these side deals through The Associated Press, rather than from the administration,” added Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kan., who co-wrote with Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., a letter Wednesday demanding clarification of the Parchin arrangements from Secretary of State John Kerry.
Meanwhile, two Republican senators, including one who’s seeking the GOP presidential nomination, are demanding the Obama administration make public confidential arrangements with China and European governments about how sanctions will be reimposed if Iran cheats.
GOP presidential hopeful Mario Rubio of Florida and Mark Kirk of Illinois argue that the letters from Kerry seem to tell European and Chinese governments that their companies would not be hit by reimposed sanctions if Iran cheats on the nuclear deal. They are pressing the State Department to release the letters so Americans can judge for themselves before Congress votes on the deal in September.
“These letters appear to reassure these foreign governments that their companies may not be impacted if sanctions are re-imposed in response to Iranian violations of the agreement,” they wrote. “While administration officials have claimed that this is not the case, we think it is important for the American public to be able to read your assurances to foreign governments for themselves as their elected representatives review this deal in the coming weeks.”
The State Department submitted the letters to Congress as part of its obligation under a law passed in May to disclose all documents related to the Iran deal.
The controversies over the hidden arrangements also bolster Republican efforts to use the nuclear deal as a weapon against Democratic challengers and senators running for re-election in a bid to keep their Senate majority. But there’s no evidence yet that they’ve swayed any votes.
Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey cited the unusual arrangements for Parchin in a speech Tuesday announcing his opposition to the nuclear deal, saying it “would be the equivalent of having an athlete accused of using performance-enhancing drugs submit an unsupervised urine sample to the appropriate authority.”
But Menendez has been a persistent critic of the negotiating process all along, and was widely expected to oppose the deal.
