House Foreign Affairs chairman Michael McCaul (R., Texas) sent a letter to President Joe Biden on Thursday, warning him that the recent informal talks with Iran “[call] into question your Administration’s intent to follow the law and submit any agreement with Iran to Congress, as required by the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015.”
Reports emerged Wednesday that the Biden administration had hosted “proximity talks” with Iran last month, with Omani officials passing messages between the two parties. The administration is increasingly concerned about advances in Iran’s nuclear program and is seeking an unwritten agreement that Iranian officials are calling a “political ceasefire.” The administration has not ruled out returning to the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which the U.S. withdrew from under Donald Trump, with the former president calling it “one of the worst and most one-sided transactions” that failed to protect U.S. national security.
McCaul argued in the letter that even an unofficial deal would constitute a “reckless less-for-less arrangement.”
“Rather than using United States diplomatic leverage and military deterrence to dissuade Iran from engaging in these malign activities, this Administration is rewarding Iran’s bad behavior in exchange for a false promise of de-escalation,” McCaul wrote.
The congressman pointed out that as Biden courts Iran, that country continues its “cruel and brutal crackdown on popular protests that were triggered by the vicious murder of Mahsa Amini.” According to McCaul, Iranian proxies continue to attack U.S. troops in the Middle East, the country is threatening the global economy by seizing oil tankers in international waterways, and it is also fueling the Russian invasion of Ukraine by providing drones and other weapons.
McCaul added that Iran has accumulated irreversible nuclear knowledge, and any agreement — formal or informal — “that merely caps, rather than completely ends, Iran’s nuclear program represents a dangerous undermining of global nonproliferation norms.”
A March International Atomic Energy Agency report revealed that Iran has amassed 87.5 kilograms of 60 percent enriched uranium. If that uranium is enriched to the 90 percent level, it will be enough to produce one nuclear weapon. Alarm bells are already ringing throughout the West, and air strikes have not been ruled out by Israel.
Since Biden took office, the U.S. has vacillated between seeking to return to the 2015 deal and stopgap solutions. Iranian officials have reiterated that they will agree only to a JCPOA return, which lifted sanctions in return for caps on the nuclear program.
In pursuit of a deal, the U.S. has sought to pressure its allies to soften their position on Iran, with U.S. diplomats pressing the United Kingdom not to designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a foreign terrorist organization, even though the group is proscribed by the U.S.
McCaul asserted that even an informal plan needs to be approved by Congress under the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act.
“This continued lack of transparency and consultation with Congress is deeply disturbing,” McCaul said.
“Any continued obstruction will rob the American people, and in particular the Gold Star families whose loved ones were killed by Iran-backed terrorism, of answers about why the United States is facilitating the lining of Iran’s coffers,” added McCaul, referring to Iran’s expectation that the U.S. will unfreeze assets and avoid tightening sanctions further in an informal deal.