A letter to President Barack Obama, sent Monday by 367 House members highlights what they describe as “grave and urgent issues” relating to negotiations to rein in Iran’s nuclear ambitions. And urges verifiable limitations on Tehran’s nuclear program.
The bipartisan letter, dated Friday and released on Monday by the House Foreign Affairs Committee, cites concerns about the size of Iran’s uranium-enrichment program, its lack of cooperation with international inspectors and the need for an intrusive inspection regime.
The letter comes as negotiators face a self-imposed deadline, the end of March, to arrange a treaty by which the Iranian regime slows or stops its uranium enrichment program.
In any agreement, “Congress must be convinced that its terms foreclose any pathway to a bomb, and only then will Congress be able to consider permanent sanctions relief,” according to the letter signed by 84 percent of House members, including Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the committee’s ranking member, Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y.
“A final comprehensive nuclear agreement must constrain Iran’s nuclear infrastructure so that Iran has no pathway to a bomb, and that agreement must be long-lasting,” according to the letter.
Those signing the letter also include such Republicans as Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and such Democrats as Steny Hoyer, the minority whip.
The lawmakers said they remain “hopeful that a diplomatic solution preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon may yet be reached,” and they told Obama, “we want to work with you to assure such a result.”
