A trio of House Republicans asked Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday to clarify whether Tehran will be forced to account for past attempts to develop a nuclear weapon before getting relief from international sanctions.
In a letter, Reps. Mike Pompeo of Kansas, Peter Roskam of Illinois and Lee Zeldin of New York asked Kerry to explain the apparent contradiction between the administration’s past insistence that Iran must come clean on its past nuclear work and reports that Tehran would get sanctions relief without doing so.
“Unfortunately, it appears that the American people were misled,” the lawmakers wrote.
“The administration’s position on [possible military dimensions] has either changed, or you never intended to insist that Iran resolve the PMD issue before providing sanctions relief.”
Under the July 14 agreement, sanctions against Iran are to be lifted after the International Atomic Energy Agency approves a final report on the matter at its Dec. 15 meeting, provided Iran also is complying with other provisions designed to limit its nuclear program.
But IAEA chief Yukiya Amano told reporters Thursday in Vienna that the report to be sent to the board on Tuesday is likely to be inconclusive, saying gaps still remained in the agency’s understanding of Iran’s previous activities after an investigation carried out under a separate side deal reached on the same day as the nuclear agreement.
“The report will not be black and white,” Amano said.
Under the nuclear deal, release of the agency’s final report is supposed to trigger sanctions relief, regardless of its contents. But lawmakers, concerned that the confidential side deal would not give the IAEA the means to resolve the issue of Iran’s past weapons work, have pushed unsuccessfully to block sanctions relief until they could weigh in.
Pompeo and Zeldin combined to offer a resolution, which the House adopted Sept. 10, that attempted to create a legal means to block President Obama from waiving sanctions against Iran. A day later, the chamber passed a bill by Roskam that would formally rescind the president’s authority to do so. The White House ignored the resolution and Senate Democrats blocked the legislation.
Pompeo told the Washington Examiner on Monday that “this report is going to do exactly what I feared. … The administration will use that as a fait accompli to lift the sanctions.”
Meanwhile, Iranian officials threatened over the weekend to pull out of the entire nuclear agreement if the international community refuses to close the PMD file.
“The closure of the PMD file is a prerequisite for implementation” of the deal, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Sunday.
