The Obama administration structured the Iran nuclear deal to cover up Iranian violations, which may make it impossible to rigorously enforce the landmark agreement as Trump administration officials have suggested, according to a top Republican senator.
The comments from Texas senator Ted Cruz come amid White House debate over how to approach the agreement, which Trump described on the campaign trail as “the worst deal ever negotiated,” as well as congressional moves to impose non-nuclear sanctions against Tehran for ballistic missile development, terrorism, and human rights violations.
“It was designed to facilitate cheating, and so the only reasonable inference is, of course they’re cheating,” Cruz told reporters at the Conservative Political Action Conference. “This deal was structured so that there are significant facilities in Iran immune from inspection, and indeed we’re trusting the Iranians to ‘inspect themselves.'”
The flaws in the deal would make it difficult to enforce as the Trump administration is considering, Cruz added.
“That was an area of disagreement between President Trump and me on the campaign trail. I advocated ripping the deal to shreds,” he said. “He disgreed.”
Cruz emphasized the importance of renegotiating the deal.
“What he has said he intends to do is vigorously enforce the deal and renegotiate it so that it better protects our interests,” Cruz continued. “If that’s the path he has chosen, I encourage him to do exactly that.”
Cruz called on the Trump administration to release secret documents related to the Obama administration’s diplomacy with Iran, which he said could shed light on Tehran’s likely violations of the deal. “We don’t have enough of the details of the nuclear deal to assess [Iranian violations] with legal precision,” he said, after stating that Iran “almost certainly” has violated the nuclear deal.
“Many of the details of that deal were hidden by the Obama administration because they were indefensible,” he said. “I very much hope the Trump administration releases those details to the public. The public deserves to know what’s in this deal.”
Bipartisan calls to release documents related to the nuclear deal, some unclassified, mounted as the Obama administration’s second term came to a close and have continued under President Trump.
