Iran's Nuclear Deal

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. Speaker, I rise to discuss one aspect of this Iran deal which I think is a fatal flaw, in addition to other fatal flaws--but this one, I think, in particular--and that is the issue of inspections.

Now, the crucial part of any type of deal dealing with nuclear disarmament involves inspections. You have got to inspect to make sure that they are not--that, in this case, Iran is not--building a nuclear weapon.

Now, the best way to have done that would be to insist that the sanctions remain in place until Iran affirmatively dismantles their program, and then you have inspectors go in to verify that the program has been dismantled; and then as long as the program is, in fact, dismantled and they don't have a nuclear infrastructure, then the sanctions are relieved. The minute that they are caught trying to rebuild, then the sanctions go back on.

But that is not what this deal is at all. What this deal is is a huge, huge influx of cash, hundreds of billions of dollars up front to the Iranian regime, which will be used, no doubt, much of that money, to fund terrorism and to expand Iran's influence throughout the Middle East.

And we are affirmatively recognizing Iran's nuclear program. They are not required to dismantle their infrastructure, so they get to keep that. So a huge influx of cash, and they keep the nuclear program.

You are not going to sell me once you go down that road, because I don't think they have a right to any nuclear material. But other people will say, well, as long as we can inspect, then maybe it is going to be okay. And here, in this deal, we don't even have legitimate inspections.

Now, the administration has drawn a lot of red lines with this Iran deal. One of them was, of course we are going to have anywhere, anytime inspections, and they said that repeatedly. Just a couple of months ago, in April, Ben Rhodes, Deputy National Security Adviser, said the deal would include anytime, anywhere inspections. Energy Secretary Moniz said of course you have to have anytime, anywhere inspections.

And then guess what? The deal comes out. Rhodes is asked on TV, what about anytime, anywhere? I thought that was part of the deal. He said we never sought anywhere, anytime inspections. So the administration is recognizing the reality that this deal does not include anywhere, anytime inspections.

What it does have is a convoluted bureaucratic process that, if we or the IAEA or the U.N. suspect that Iran is developing a nuclear weapon in, say, one of their military sites, you actually have to petition to be able to inspect it. Iran gets to weigh in on whether they want to.

There is a convoluted bureaucratic appeals process. Basically, Iran can drag it out for 24 days, and that is even assuming you get a positive resolution, which, by the way, is going to require the assent of Russia and China, and they may not even be willing to give approval. So even if you get that, that is 3-plus weeks where Iran will have the ability to conceal any of the offending conduct that they were suspected of. So the bottom line is a 24-day delay makes the inspections regime utterly useless.

So this is a country that has sponsored terrorism consistently for decades. They have lied to the United Nations for decades. Then we are in a situation where somehow they should be able to block access to their potential weapon sites?

The bottom line is Iran should not be able to interfere with any inspections for any reason at any time. Unless you have that, this is not going to be something that has any chance of success.

And guess what. Not only are the inspections not valid, but you are lifting the arms embargo over a couple of years, and you are relieving sanctions on the Quds Force and Qasem Soleimani. These are designated terrorists. Our country has viewed them as a designated terrorist organization.

So the bottom line is, on its own terms, this deal will not succeed. It is a dangerous mistake. Congress has the ability over these next 60 days to scrutinize it, to debate it, and, ultimately, God willing, to stop it.

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