Senators are leaving town this week without what many say is a key element in what they need to evaluate the nuclear deal with Iran: the “roadmap” for how Tehran will resolve outstanding issues with the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog.
International Atomic Energy Agency chief Yukiya Amano refused in a meeting with members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday to provide copies of the roadmap and its annexes, which many lawmakers insist are crucial to their ability to properly evaluate the deal.
“I don’t know how anybody could have left there today feeling more assured,” Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said after the meeting.
The committee’s ranking Democrat, Ben Cardin of Maryland, put a more positive spin on the issue in an interview with CNN, saying, “We’re trying to tease out the process …. we are hopeful we’ll get more information.”
The roadmap worked out between Iran and the IAEA and signed July 14 creates the process by which Tehran is supposed to resolve outstanding issues with the agency over its past nuclear weapons work by Oct. 15. Under the broader deal worked out between Iran and six world powers on the same day, a Dec. 15 IAEA report on the issue would trigger a lifting of international sanctions.
But Congress must vote by mid-September if it wants a say over the lifting of sanctions, which is why the issue has become a major sticking point in the review process. Neutral experts have told lawmakers in a series of hearings that a full accounting for any past work on nuclear weapons is crucial to verifying that Iran’s program remains peaceful under the broader agreement.
Committee members contacted Amano after being rebuffed on the issue by the Obama administration, which argues that the documents must remain confidential to preserve the International Atomic Energy Agency’s integrity and independence and to avoid setting a precedent for another country to demand copies of similar arrangements with the United States.
At a hearing earlier Wednesday, Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman, the chief U.S. negotiator on the broader deal, told Corker she had seen a draft of the roadmap, though not the final version, but was satisfied it would resolve U.S. concerns over Iran’s past work.
She noted that U.S. officials had already concluded in a 2007 National Intelligence Estimate that Iran had pursued nuclear weapons in the past.
“The United States has already made its judgment and we stand by that judgment,” Sherman said.
It’s not clear whether the lack of access to the IAEA-Iran roadmap will sway any votes when lawmakers return in September to consider a resolution disapproving of the nuclear deal.
President Obama has vowed to veto the measure, and though public support for the deal is slipping, enough Democrats have rallied behind it that the possibility of an override is growing slim.
Among those still undecided is Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, who is expected to become Democratic leader after Minority Leader Harry Reid retires next year.
Schumer has been under heavy pressure from both supporters and opponents of the deal, but vowed Wednesday he wasn’t going to let that sway his vote.
“I want to judge the deal on the merits and the merits alone,” he said.
