President Obama refuses to allow Congress, other nations or the public to review two key components of the Iran nuclear deal, according to two Republican lawmakers.
During a meeting last week in Vienna with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kan., and Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., learned that two secretive side deals were made between Iran and the IAEA as part of the nuclear agreement reached between Iran, the U.S. and five other world powers.
These deals "will remain secret and will not be shared with other nations, with Congress, or with the public," says a press release released by Pompeo's office. "Both arrangements will not be vetted by any organization other than Iran and the IAEA, and will not be released even to the nations that negotiated" the Iran deal.
The first side deal has to do with inspections of Iran's Parchin military complex, one of the most secretive facilities in Iran, which has long-been suspected of being used to conduct research and development on nuclear weapons and long-range ballistic missiles, according to the National Review.
"According to the IAEA, the Iran agreement negotiators, including the Obama administration, agreed that the IAEA and Iran would forge separate arrangements to govern the inspection of the Parchin military complex," Pompeo's office said.
Since 2005, Iran has blocked repeated attempts by the IAEA to gain access to the Parchin site, and in 2011, the IAEA suspected that Parchin was being used to carry out "high-explosive experiments as part of an effort to build nuclear weapons," the lawmakers said.
The second deal details "how the IAEA and Iran will resolve outstanding issues on possible military dimensions of Iran's nuclear program," according to Pompeo, who serves on the House Intelligence Committee.
The lawmakers note that the Obama administration is required to provide Congress with all documents relating to the nuclear accord, including any side agreements.
"This agreement is the worst of backroom deals," Pompeo said. "In addition to allowing Iran to keep its nuclear program, missile program, American hostages, and terrorist network, the Obama administration has failed to make public separate side deals that have been struck for the 'inspection' of one of the most important nuclear sites-the Parchin military complex. Not only does this violate the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act, it is asking Congress to agree to a deal that it cannot review."
Cotton also chimed in, saying, "In failing to secure the disclosure of these secret side deals, the Obama administration is asking Congress and the American people to trust, but not verify."
During the negotiating period and in the days after the final agreement was reached, President Obama repeatedly touted how the deal was not based on trust, but on verification, as HNGN previously reported.
"What we cannot do is trust the terror-sponsoring, anti-American, outlaw regime that governs Iran and that has been deceiving the world on its nuclear weapons work for years," Cotton continued. "Congress's evaluation of this deal must be based on hard facts and full information. That we are only now discovering that parts of this dangerous agreement are being kept secret begs the question of what other elements may also be secret and entirely free from public scrutiny."
