U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham said Monday he plans to block funding to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) until the U.S. Congress gets access to alleged side deals that are related to the Iranian nuclear agreement.
Sen. Graham intends to block $88 million in U.S. funds to the UN nuclear watchdog until lawmakers get the documents, according to a Roll Call report. Sen. Graham is the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee that oversees that funding.
The report said the Republican presidential contender issued the threat during a “No Nukes for Iran” town hall meeting in South Carolina Monday.
“I’m not for a side deal that I can’t look at,” Sen. Graham said. ”And this is a very clever thing they did. The Iranians opposed anytime, anywhere inspections of their military facilities. We said early on that if you can’t determine the military dimensions of a program, then it’s not a good deal. How do you know if it’s a good deal or not?”
Sen. Graham said the IAEA has a “secret deal” with Iran that “limits inspections of [Iran’s] military facilities.”
“I don’t believe it’s a deal that until I get to look at it, so that’s the problem here,” Sen. Graham said.
The alleged side deals are part of a roadmap the IAEA and the regime in Iran agreed on in mid-July that focuses on Tehran’s previous work on attaining a nuclear bomb. Obama administration officials say the side deals are not connected to the Iran nuclear agreement reached between Iran and the P5+1 — the U.S., Great Britain, Germany, France, China and Russia.
Last week, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman, who is a negotiator in the Iranian nuclear talks, told the U.S. Senate Banking Committee that she and her team had only seen rough drafts of the IAEA documents.
Related News:
Sen. Ted Cruz: States should impose own sanctions on Iran regime
