Royce Slams ‘Side Deal’ Allowing Iran to Inspect Itself

Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA), Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, responded to news that a side deal between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will allow Iran to use its own experts, instead of international inspectors, to test potential nuclear sites.

Royce described the move as a “dangerous farce”:

International inspections should be done by international inspectors. Period. The standard of ‘anywhere, anytime’ inspections – so critical to a viable agreement – has dropped to ‘when Iran wants, where Iran wants, on Iran’s terms.’ For weeks, Congress has been demanding access to this document to assess the viability of the inspections measures. Congress must now consider whether this unprecedented arrangement will keep Iran from cheating. This is a dangerous farce.

News of several secret “side deals” between Iran and the IAEA have raised concern in the Senate, particularly as they have not been made available to Congress.

Royce sent a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry earlier this month expressing his concern over the agreements,  and imploring him to make them available to Congress during the critical 60-day review period.

“As you well know, the history of Iranian negotiating behavior is to ‘pocket’ past concessions and push for more,” Royce wrote.

He continued, “[t]he ‘separate arrangement’ agreed to between the IAEA and Iran regarding inspection of the facilities at Parchin will almost certainly be regarded by Tehran as a precedent for IAEA access to future suspicious sites in Iran….This makes it imperative that these arrangements are made available to Congress to be fully considered during the Congressional review period.”

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