[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 178 (Wednesday, December 9, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8531-S8532]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
NUCLEAR AGREEMENT WITH IRAN
Mr. TOOMEY. Mr. President, I wish to address an issue that has kind
of been pushed into the background by virtue of a series of events that
has, quite understandably, captured all of our attention. The
atrocities committed by ISIS has justified a focus of attention on how
we can make America more secure from this very frightening and
dangerous threat, but we shouldn't lose sight of an ongoing threat that
is simultaneously developing, and I am referring to the Iran nuclear
deal and the very disturbing developments that have occurred just in
the short period of time since the JCPOA, the agreement between the
Western powers, including the United States, and Iran, was announced.
This is a deal that in its own right is very disturbing. I found it
impossible to defend. Since then, it has gotten worse, and in my view
additional developments clearly indicate that we don't really have an
agreement here, and the President should not be lifting sanctions in a
few weeks. My fear is that is exactly what the President intends do.
Let me walk through several of the items that have occurred recently
that are particularly disturbing.
Item No. 1, almost immediately after the deal was announced, the
Iranian leadership insisted they would essentially rewrite some very
important parts of the deal. Specifically, they demanded that the
sanctions had to be permanently lifted rather than suspended
indefinitely. The JCPOA language says the United States will ``cease
the application of sanctions.'' The administration has been very clear.
They told us that means the sanctions are suspended, but the framework
remains in place in case they need to be reapplied. They have
predicated the entire viability of this agreement on the ability to
reimpose sanctions, so it is essential that they in fact be available
to reapply. The Iranians have said: No, absolutely not. That is not
what the agreement says. It says these sanctions are to be lifted and
permanently removed and they cannot be restored for any reason under
any circumstance.
Well, which is it? The Iranians have clearly indicated that they have
a very different understanding than our administration does, and this
matters because whether sanctions can be reimposed in the event of a
violation is absolutely central to the enforcement of this agreement,
and that is according to the administration.
Item No. 2, shortly after the deal was announced, a couple of our
colleagues--a House Member and a Senator--discovered the existence of
two secret side deals. While on a trip to Europe, they discovered that
these agreements were negotiated between the IAEA, the International
Atomic Energy Agency, charged with much of the enforcement of this
agreement, and the government in Tehran. It went to the heart of the
past nuclear weapons activity that the Iranian Government was involved
in. The administration didn't tell us about these side agreements or
give us these side agreements, but it turns out they exist.
The nuclear review act stated very clearly that the President was
obligated to give us all related documentation--all of it. The actual
language is ``any additional materials related thereto, including
annexes, appendices, codicils, side agreements, implementing materials,
documents, and guidance.''
I think it is abundantly clear that the legislation actually in fact
says, and intended to say, that anything in any way related to this
agreement had to be handed over to Congress. It never happened. We
never got it. To this day, we haven't gotten it. In fact, no Member of
Congress has seen these agreements--these two documents. It is not just
that no Member of Congress has seen them, nobody in the administration
has seen them because the administration thought it was OK to just
trust some other entity to negotiate a very central enforcement
provision of this agreement without ever being able to even see it. It
is unbelievable. No. 1, the President is in violation of the law if he
lifts these sanctions because the law clearly states that process can't
begin until we have gotten all the documents, and we still haven't, and
a very important aspect of this agreement is something that the
administration has never seen.
Item No. 3, October 3, just a few weeks ago, Iran launched a new
long-range, precision-guided ballistic missile. Even the Obama
administration acknowledges that this is a violation of U.N. Security
Council Resolution 1929, which prohibits any ballistic missile
activities on the part of Iran. Let me briefly quote from that
resolution. It is a resolution that, by the way, supports the JCPOA. It
is an integral part of the nuclear deal with Iran. It states that Iran
is ``not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles
designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including
launches using such ballistic missile technology, until the date eight
years after the JCPOA.'' The intermediate-range ballistic missiles that
the Iranians launched could absolutely hold nuclear weapons. They have
a 1,000-mile range and could reach Israel.
A few weeks after that, on November 21, Iran launched a second
ballistic missile. In spite of everybody pointing out that they were in
violation of the JCPOA with the first launch, they demonstrated just
how concerned they were about that by a second launch. It was a
slightly different system, quicker setup time, more mobility, more
maneuverable, and still capable of delivering nuclear weapons. Why does
this matter? Well, it matters because it demonstrates that Iran has
every intention to continue to improve its ability to deliver nuclear
weapons great distances, with great precision. It demonstrates the
continued intent of Iran to develop the capability to threaten and
attack Israel and U.S. allies.
It is a fact that with this technology in place, if and when they
violate this agreement and develop nuclear weapons--or even if they
just wait until it is over and develop nuclear weapons, which the
agreement permits--they will be immediately prepared to launch these
weapons great distances. Maybe most fundamentally, Iran is in open
violation of the JCPOA. They obviously have contempt for this
agreement. How can we trust them when they are blatantly and flagrantly
violating central parts of it?
Item No. 4, October 29, Iran sends weapons to the Assad regime on
Russian cargo planes, violating another U.S. Security Council
Resolution, as was part of a bigger deal. It included, in the
negotiation of the deal, that Commander Soleimani travel to Russia,
which is in violation of the U.S. Security Council Resolutions because
a travel ban had been imposed personally on him. That didn't matter. He
went to Russia and negotiated an agreement that included weapons for
Assad, in violation of another U.N. Security Council resolution, and
Russian delivery of the SA-300 Air Defense System for Iran.
Why is this important? Well, it is yet another flagrant violation of
international law and U.N. Security Council resolutions but also
because the delivery of these surface-to-air missiles diminishes the
ability and credibility of a military strike against Iran, which we
have been told is always the ultimate backstop. You would think that
maybe the administration would have some concern about this.
Item No. 5, October 29, Iran arrests an American and convicts another
American. The Iranian regime arrested the Iranian-American businessman
Siamak Namazi and convicted Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian in a
show trial. This American reporter has now been held for over 500 days.
Meanwhile, of course, the Iranian hardliners continue to hold their
anti-American rallies, burn American flags, and shout ``Death to
America.''
Why does all of this matter? After all, this was not contemplated by
the
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JCPOA directly. It matters because it reveals the ongoing open
hostility of the Iranian leadership to the United States. In response,
of course, America has taken no steps and no action, but it is
fundamentally clear that this deal has not changed the mindset or
attitude of the regime toward America, and now it appears that Iran is
holding some additional chips, if you will, in the form of American
hostages and that should be pretty disturbing.
Item No. 6, December 2, just a few days ago, the IAEA report came out
on the previous military dimensions of Iran's weapons program. What did
they conclude? They concluded that up until and through at least 2009,
Iran was, in fact, working on a nuclear weapons capability. That is
from the IAEA's report. That is not my opinion. That is their
conclusion. They confirmed, among other things, that the Iranians were
working on neutron triggers for detonation purposes, miniaturization
efforts for warheads so they could be put on ballistic missiles, and
specific designs for fitting them on weapons.
In addition to confirming the nuclear weapons activity of the Iranian
regime, the IAEA report highlighted that the Iranians were not fully
cooperating as they were trying to determine the extent of the past
military dimensions. Again, according to the IAEA, the Iranians
consistently tried to mislead investigators.
At the Parchin site, where much of the research and weaponization
process was underway, the Iranians were heavily sanitizing the site. In
recent months, they were trying to destroy the evidence prior to the
IAEA investigation and determination, and the Iranians did not provide
all of the information that was requested of them. This is all from the
IAEA.
Why does all of this matter? First and foremost, it is absolutely
indisputable proof positive that Iran has been lying through this
entire process. They have always said they have no nuclear weapons
program and that all of their nuclear research has always been
exclusively for peaceful purposes. It has been a lie. It was always a
lie. It was a lie through the entire negotiations. If they are willing
to lie about this, what else are they lying about? Since they were not
willing to fully cooperate, how much do we really know about exactly
how far along their weapons process was? And if and when we discover
future weapons developments, we might not know whether that was prior
to the agreement or post-agreement. It just creates a great deal of
dangerous ambiguity.
Finally--and this to me is maybe the most shocking--on November 24,
the State Department acknowledged that the Government of Iran had never
ratified and had not signed the JCPOA. They haven't signed the
agreement. The administration acknowledges this. In a letter to a
Member of Congress, Congressman Mike Pompeo, on November 19, 2015, the
State Department said, among other things, the ``JCPOA is not a treaty
or an executive agreement, and is not a signed document. The JCPOA
reflects political commitments. . . . ''
The President had previously called it a negotiated diplomatic
agreement and attached great weight to it. The President said:
The agreement now reached between the international
community and Iran builds on this tradition of strong
principled diplomacy. After two years of negotiations, we
have achieved a detailed arrangement that permanently
prohibits Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.
Except that it doesn't and Iran hasn't signed it. The President even
compared it to the START treaty and the nonproliferation treaty. It is
very different. The fact is, the State Department letter openly admits
that this agreement, if you can call it that, is not legally binding on
Iran, and the Iranians have refused to sign it. Instead, it is supposed
to depend on extensive verification, and we have talked about the
problems with that, and the ability to snap back sanctions, which,
likewise, have been dramatically undermined at best.
Then let's look at what the Iranians have done. President Ruhani
pushed the Iranian legislature specifically not to adopt the JCPOA.
They have ignored it. They have not voted on it. They have not ratified
it. They have not affirmed it. So, in addition to not signing it, they
have not had an eradication vote to approve it. In fact, they voted on
some other framework. Ayatollah Khamenei has suspended further
negotiations with the United States, so they have not signed the
agreement, they have not voted on the agreement, and they have
announced that they have no intentions of discussing any more with us
the substance of it.
It looks pretty clear to me that the Iranians are creating the
ability to completely deny any obligation on their part to honor the
terms of the agreement. It looks pretty obvious to me that that is what
is going on here. Yet we are just a few weeks away from what this
agreement, which hasn't really been agreed to, calls the
``implementation day.'' That is the day on which the sanctions will be
lifted.
By all accounts, it appears as though the administration intends to
go ahead and lift the sanctions. Principally among them is the release
of many tens of billions--maybe $100 billion--to Iran, despite the fact
that the Iranians have demanded that these sanctions be permanently
lifted, despite the discovery of these secret agreements, despite at
least two ballistic missile launches in direct violation of the
agreement, despite the violations of the arms embargoes, despite the
arrest of Americans, despite the confirmation that we all now know that
Iran has been lying throughout this entire process about the past
weaponization, and despite the fact that they refuse to sign or pass
this agreement. Despite all that, we apparently are just a few weeks
away from lifting the sanctions, releasing upwards of $100 billion to
the Iranians, and, of course, at that moment, losing virtually all
leverage over Iran and their pursuit of nuclear weapons.
I think it is time the President of the United States realizes and
acknowledges that there is no agreement here. There is not a deal. Any
reason one would think of at this point that Iran is going to honor
this agreement that is not really an agreement I think is extremely
naive at best.
I hope that in the very short time that remains, we are able to
persuade the administration to reconsider their apparent intent to lift
these sanctions and reward this regime with a staggering amount of
money with which they will do, in my view, very likely great harm.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Colorado.
Mr. BENNET. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent for an additional
10 minutes to the 10 minutes I have been allotted.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
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