Lawmakers on Tuesday and Wednesday issued statements indicating broad bipartisan support for congressional oversight of any potential deal with Iran.
Yesterday, Rep. Ed Royce (R-Calif.), who had earlier in the day been chosen by the House Republican Conference to continue to serve as chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, released a statement in which he stressed that the “Committee will continue its efforts to stop Iran’s march toward nuclear weapons, which threatens to undermine fundamentally the security of us and our critical allies.” They have been joined by their colleagues across the aisle: Senator Mark Warner (D-Va.) on Tuesday called for “the dismantling—not freezing—of Iran’s illegal nuclear weapons program,” as well as “congressional review of any agreement to assure legitimacy and longevity of the decision.” Today, Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) similarly stated that “[i]n any agreement, Iran must fully submit to intrusive inspections of its illicit nuclear program, fully disclose its past military work, and dismantle any capacity to develop and build a nuclear weapon in the future.”
If Iran and the P5+1 reach a comprehensive agreement, it must definitively close all pathways toward an Iranian nuclear weapon. Congress must be closely consulted on a potential accord and should one be reached, any sanctions relief should only be granted as Iran demonstrates full compliance, with hesitation or backsliding met with swiftly reinstated sanctions.
Call for dismantlement have been repeatedly emphasized as a critical prerequisite by huge majorities of both the Senate and the House.
A letter authored by Senators Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) and Bob Menendez (D-NJ) earlier this month had emphasized that Tehran should be forced to meet long-standing international demands regarding its atomic program:
We believe that a good deal will dismantle, not just stall, Iran’s illicit nuclear program and prevent Iran from ever becoming a threshold nuclear weapons state.
Al Monitor’s insidery Congress Pulse had last week conveyed comments from National Iranian American Council (NIAC) Founder and President Trita Parsi, accused of lobbying on behalf of Iran, to the effect that “the [insistence] on dismantlement continues to put Kirk and Menendez in the camp of those pushing for unrealistic demands.” Dismantlement has, in fact, been a condition laid down by the Obama administration last year during talks between the P5+1 and the Islamic republic.
These developments come amid reports that negotiations this week in Vienna may not produce a final deal by the November 24th deadline:
“I’m not optimistic that we can get everything done by Monday,” Hammond [Britain’s foreign secretary] told reporters during a visit to the Latvian capital, Riga.
“But I think if we make some significant movement we may be able to find a way of extending the deadline to allow us to get to the final deal if we’re making good progress in the right direction.”
[Photo: BetacommandBot / WikiCommons]