WASHINGTON, D.C.—House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) issued the following statement today after the Associated Press reported that “Iran, in an unusual arrangement, will be allowed to use its own experts to inspect a site it allegedly used to develop nuclear arms under a secret agreement with the U.N. agency that normally carries out such work.”
“These revelations expose even deeper concerns about President Obama’s dangerous deal with Iran. When I challenged President Obama to disclose the details of any secret side deals with Iran, he denied any such deals existed despite his own negotiator’s acknowledgement to the contrary. Now we are learning details of a deeply troubling secret side deal—one which puts the Iranian regime in charge of inspecting their own former nuclear site—from media reports,” Scalise said. “Iran has already proven they can’t be trusted, and these new revelations show that President Obama is willing to trust the same Iranian regime that is chanting ‘ Death to America’ to inspect their own nuclear facilities, rather than for inspections to be carried out by an impartial third party. This is worse than putting the fox in charge of the hen house, because it ultimately involves Iran’s ability to develop a nuclear weapon that can be sent to destroy American cities. President Obama needs to finally disclose to the American people what is in these secret side deals, and give us all the facts before Congress votes next month on this issue that is so critical to America’s national security. These new facts only underscore the dangerous concessions the Administration made to Iran in their desperate push to cut a deal at any cost. I will continue to do everything in my power to stop this dangerous deal with Iran from becoming a reality.”
Notably, when Whip Scalise publicly challenged President Obama to reveal the details of any secret side deals, the President denied the existence of any such secret deals, saying “there are no secret deals.”
As the Associated Press reports, this newly revealed secret side deal “diverges from normal procedures by allowing Tehran to employ its own experts and equipment in the search for evidence of activities it has consistently denied — trying to develop nuclear weapons. Olli Heinonen, who was in charge of the Iran probe as deputy IAEA director general from 2005 to 2010, said he could think of no similar concession with any other country. The White House has repeatedly denied claims of a secret side deal favorable to Tehran.”