http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/07/22/republicans-call-on-obama-to-reveal-side-deals-in-iran-nuke-agreement/You've been fleeced': Congress grills Kerry, Obama officials on Iran nuke deal
Published July 23, 2015FoxNews.com
Kerry, Obama officials on Iran nuke deal
Published July 23, 2015FoxNews.com
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A top Senate Republican accused the Obama administration on Thursday of cutting a deal with Iran that paves its path to a nuclear weapon, telling Secretary of State John Kerry: "You've been fleeced."
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker tore into the nuclear agreement at the start of a hearing before his committee, where Kerry and other top officials were testifying. He said he walked away from a briefing with the secretary a day earlier "depressed," and claimed Iran could eventually build a bomb by simply waiting out the clock and "abiding by this agreement."
"From my perspective, Mr. Secretary, I'm sorry ... I believe you've been fleeced," Corker said.
Sen. James Risch, R-Idaho, added: "You guys have been bamboozled."
Kerry, though, vigorously defended the agreement, calling it "fantasy, plain and simple," to think the United States failed to hold out for a better deal at the bargaining table.
"Let me underscore, the alternative to the deal we've reached isn't what I've seen some ads on TV suggesting disingenuously," he told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in the first public hearing on the controversial deal to lift economic and other sanctions in exchange for concessions of the Islamic state's nuclear program.
"It isn't a quote better deal, some sort of unicorn arrangement involving Iran's complete capitulation," Kerry said.
Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz also said the deal is not "built on trust."
The hearing comes as lawmakers raise new concerns about alleged secret "side deals" struck with Tehran over its nuclear program.
Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., and Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kan., first brought attention to them Tuesday, saying they learned from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that there were two "side deals" between Iran and the IAEA.
According to the lawmakers, one agreement covers inspection of the Parchin military complex, and the other concerns potential military aspects of Iran's nuclear program. On the former, they said, Iran would be able to strike a separate arrangement with the IAEA concerning inspections at Parchin.
House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell joined Cotton and Pompeo in sending a letter to President Obama on Wednesday requesting that the agreements be made available to Congress so that they can be reviewed.
"We request you transmit these two side agreements to Congress immediately so we may perform our duty to assess the many important questions related to the JCPOA [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action]," the letter says.
National Security Adviser Susan Rice, while defending the overall nuclear agreement, appeared to acknowledge the existence of the side deals on Wednesday. She said the matter of the Iran nuclear program's "possible military dimensions" (PMD) has long been an issue between Iran and the IAEA. She said they "negotiated and concluded an agreement to deal with this issue of PMD, which was one of the major sticking points in our dealings."
She added: "These documents are not public, but nonetheless, we have been briefed on those documents, we know their contents, we're satisfied with them and we will share the contents of those briefings in full in a classified session with the Congress. So there's nothing in that regard that we know that they won't know."
Pompeo also asked Kerry about the secret deals in a briefing Wednesday and said afterwards that Kerry "confirmed that there were in fact side deals and himself had not seen the agreement."
"I was incredibly surprised to learn there were components of the deal that Congress was not going to be privy to," Pompeo said, adding that he had expected that American negotiators would have demanded to see the side deals being cut.
The letter to Obama expressed concern that Congress was being kept in the dark.
"Most troubling, Iran and the IAEA reached agreement to resolve issues related to research at Parchin, but Congress will not have the ability to review this agreement, nor will we know the results of the IAEA's assessment until December 15," the letter says.
It goes on to request access to the side deals so that Congress can effectively review the deal as a whole:
"Failure to produce these two side agreements leaves Congress blind on critical information regarding Iran's potential path to being a nuclear power and will have detrimental consequences for the ability of members to assess the JCPOA," the letter says.
