The agreement reached last week by the Obama administration with the regime in Iran paves the rogue regime’s path to a nuclear weapon and sets up a nuclear arms race in the Middle East, U.S. Republican Senator Mark Kirk says.
The Iran deal has four major flaws, Sen. Kirk wrote in the Chicago Tribune on Monday.
“First, the agreement enriches Iran, a regime that Director of National Intelligence James Clapper calls ‘the foremost state sponsor of terrorism.'”
“Second, the agreement paves the path for Iran — whose leaders have repeatedly threatened to destroy Israel — to get nuclear weapons. While Congress designed U.S. sanctions to terminate only when Iran ends its nuclear program, the deal kills sanctions while allowing Iran to keep vast nuclear capabilities that will grow over time. Whatever modest limits are placed on Iran’s potential for nuclear weapons disappear in little more than a decade — and much sooner, if Iran cheats.”
“Third, the deal lacks real and unfettered inspections to catch all possible Iranian nuclear cheating. Congress repeatedly demanded that the agreement require Iran, a serial cheater, to confess all nuclear weapons activities and subject Iran to unannounced nuclear inspections any time and at any place, including military facilities. The deal does neither.”
“Iran must answer questions that inspectors have about its nuclear weapons activities, but the deal does not mandate a full Iranian confession. Iran can delay and obstruct inspections at suspect facilities for 24 days — more than enough time to erase evidence of nuclear cheating.”
“Fourth, the deal lacks real accountability for Iranian nuclear violations. When Iran next cheats, the allegation goes to a ‘joint commission’ on which Iran will review the accusation against itself. If the commission doesn’t ‘resolve’ Iran’s violation within 30 days, the case goes to the U.N. Security Council. There, world powers would have yet another 30 days to ‘resolve’ the violation or punish Iran by reinstating U.N. sanctions.”
“But there’s a catch: The deal says ‘if sanctions are reinstated in whole or in part, Iran will treat that as grounds to cease performing its commitments.’ So Iran could blackmail countries into turning a blind eye to nuclear violations in order to preserve the agreement.”
“The 60-day clock has started for Congress to pass or block the agreement. Yet the administration has already pushed through a U.N. Security Council resolution to approve the deal. The point of going to the U.N. first is to corner individual representatives and senators into supporting the agreement.”
If Congress doesn’t stop this “bad deal,” Sen. Kirk argues the Iranian regime could go nuclear. “Congress can and should insist on a better deal.”
U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk, a Republican, represents Illinois.
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