Lawmakers Warn There Are Two Secret Side Deals to Iran Nuclear Agreement That Won't Even Be Shared With Congress

Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) and Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kansas) revealed on Tuesday that they were made aware of two secret side deals included in the Iran nuclear deal that will not be shared with Congress or the public.

The lawmakers reportedly met with the International Energy Agency in Vienna on Friday and were informed that “two side deals made between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the IAEA as part of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) will remain secret and will not be shared with other nations, with Congress, or with the public,” according to a press release.

A military truck carrying Shalamcheh missiles drives past the presidential rostrum during the annual Army Day military parade on April 18, 2014 in Tehran. On the right is a portrait of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. (Photo: Atta Kenare/Getty Images)

One of the alleged secret deals involves the “inspection of the Parchin military complex,” and the second “details how the IAEA and Iran will resolve outstanding issues on possible military dimensions of Iran’s nuclear program,” the release added.

The parties involved in negotiating the Iran nuclear deal, including the Obama administration, reportedly agreed to the arrangement. Cotton and Pompeo urged the Obama administration to disclose details of the full Iran deal.

More from the press release:

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 – one of the most secretive military facilities in Iran – and how Iran would satisfy the IAEA’s outstanding questions regarding past weaponization work. 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 JCPOA.  This means that the secret arrangements have not been released for public scrutiny and have not been submitted to Congress as part of its legislatively mandated review of the Iran deal.

Parchin is a critical linchpin in the Iranian nuclear program that has long-been suspected of both long-range ballistic missile and nuclear weapons development.  In 2011, the IAEA suspected that the facility was used to conduct high-explosive experiments as part of an effort to build nuclear weapons.

Even under the woefully inadequate Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act, the Obama administration is required to provide the U.S. Congress with all nuclear agreement documents, including all “annexes, appendices, codicils, side agreements, implementing materials, documents, and guidance, technical or other understandings and any related agreements, whether entered into or implemented prior to the agreement or to be entered into or implemented in the future.”

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“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.  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 said in a statement. “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.”

Pompeo added, “The failure to disclose the content of these side agreements begs the question, ‘What is the Obama administration hiding?’ Even members of Congress who are sympathetic to this deal cannot and must not accept a deal we aren’t even aware of. I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to stand up and demand to see the complete deal.”

When asked about claims of secret “side deals,” White House National Security Advisor Susan Rice told reporters the Iran agreement is a “strong deal” and the administration has provided Congress with “all documents that have been shared with us by the IAEA.”

“On the issue of PMD, possible military dimensions of Iran’s nuclear program, there is no secret,” Rice said. “Iran and the IAEA, as is the custom, negotiated and concluded an agreement to deal with this issue of PMD, which was one of the major sticking points in our dealings with Iran and the P5+1. "

Rice then confirmed that the “documents are not public,” but administration officials have been briefed on the documents and are “satisfied” with them. She also said the administration would “share the contents of those briefings in full and classified sessions with the Congress.”

(H/T: National Review)

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