[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

[[Page S8532]]

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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