Rounds Urges Colleagues to Reject Iran Nuclear Deal

WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), today delivered a speech on the Senate floor encouraging his colleagues to join him in opposing the President’s nuclear deal with Iran. 

Remarks as Prepared for Delivery:

Mr. President, I rise today to speak about the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, between the United States, Great Britain, France, China, Russia, Germany and the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Much has been said about this agreement over the past weeks and months.

 

My colleagues have addressed a great number of concerns and deficiencies about the deal and many outside experts have testified before multiple committees of Congress explaining their views as well.

 

In addressing these concerns, I wish to ask a few simple questions:  Do we believe that with this agreement, the U.S. and our allies are safer today than we were a year ago and will we be safer when the nuclear limitations expire in ten years?

 

The answers to these questions are very important. 

 

They will dictate what we decide in one of the most important votes we cast in the 114th Congress.

 

After closely examining this agreement, the following can be concluded:

 

Upon verification by the IAEA (the International Atomic Energy Agency) of Iranian compliance, supposedly within a few months if Iran is in compliance, they will, after payment of their obligations, receive around $56 billion dollars that was frozen in overseas accounts.

 

Further revenue will be generated because the European Union has agreed to lift its ban on the import of Iranian oil thereby providing Iran with billions more in revenue with which to repair its oil fields and begin to repair its battered economy. 

 

According to the Wall Street Journal, Iran’s deputy petroleum minister recently stated that his country’s oil exports would reach 2.3 million barrels a day, compared with around 1.2 million barrels today.

 

Iran would also gain access to 50 million barrels of its oil held offshore, and economists estimate that Iran’s economy will grow up to nine percent in the year after implantation of the agreement.

 

This verification by the IAEA will be accomplished through protocols that members of the Senate have not seen in writing and that the Administration has not nor will they agree to provide to us.

 

This is in direct contravention to the Iran Review Act which the President signed into law agreeing to provide ALL documents and side agreements, and according to reports, will unbelievably, allow the Iranians to provide their own inspections of their military work on nuclear sites to the IAEA.

 

A robust inspection regime requires an anytime, anywhere policy.

 

Unfortunately, under the idea of “managed access” as found in the agreement, if the I-A-E-A requests access to an undeclared location under the JCPOA, Iran can delay access to the facility for two weeks or longer with the outlined multi-step process for undeclared locations.

 

U.S. sanctions against foreign firms for dealing with Iran in the oil and financial sectors, which have been the most effective sanctions enacted against Iran, will be suspended upon implementation of the agreement.

 

Sanctions prohibiting U.S. firms from conducting business with Iran will remain in place, but with a large carve out for non-U.S. entities that are owned or controlled by U.S. companies.

 

Some sanctions will also be lifted against Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, the entity that runs the military aspects of Iran’s nuclear program.

 

Furthermore, the agreement requires the U.S. to make certain that U.S. state and local governments comply with sanctions relief contravening their own sanctions placed on Iran. 

 

The JCPOA also commits the P5 + 1 to work to strengthen Iran’s ability to protect against, and respond to nuclear security threats, including sabotage - which we can presume would mean from even our allies who feel deeply threatened by this agreement which transforms Iran, a terrorist state, to a breakout nuclear power and a terrorist state.

 

In year five of this agreement, Iran will be removed from the United Nations arms embargo.

 

Yet, as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey told the Senate Armed Services Committee in August, QUOTE “under no circumstances should we relieve pressure on Iran relative to ballistic missile capabilities and arms trafficking.” UNQUOTE

 

In year eight of this agreement, Iran will be removed from the United Nations ballistic missile embargo. 

 

In July, Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter confirmed to me in a hearing that under this deal, he could not rule out Iran acquiring an intercontinental ballistic missile within ten years that could hit the United States.

 

This means that Iran would have the capability of producing a nuclear weapon that could reach U.S. soil in a decade.

 

These comments come after General Paul Selva, now the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told me during a separate hearing that Iran remains the leading state sponsor of terrorism, and resources gained in sanctions relief under the nuclear deal could be used by Iran to continue sponsoring terrorism.

 

Under the agreement, the United States agreed to allow the nuclear related equipment to remain in Iran under lock and key, and Iran will be allowed to continue researching IR-4, IR-5, IR-6 and IR-8 centrifuges.

 

Iran will also be allowed to begin testing IR-6 and IR-8 centrifuges in cascades of 30 at year eight of the agreement.  After eight years many R&D restrictions are removed and Iran will begin to manufacture advanced centrifuges. All R&D restrictions end at 10 years. 

 

Finally, after 10 years, Iran will be free of the restrictions on enrichment and could become a nuclear threshold state – legally under international law, only postponing the inevitable nuclearization of Iran.

 

So, Mr. President, with these facts established, I am left with what appears to me to be the undeniable answer to my questions:

 

The U.S. and our Middle Eastern allies are absolutely not safer today than we were a year ago and we will all be left unquestionably less safe when this agreement ends in ten years.  

 

I therefore oppose this deal. It is an agreement that will reward a violent, terrorist regime. Instead of stopping the Iranians from ever obtaining a nuclear weapon, it merely delays it.  This deal is shortsighted and dangerous for our security.

 

Just a few days ago I was talking with my eight year old grandson back in South Dakota.  He asked me what I was working on in the Senate and I told him about the President's proposed deal with Iran.

 

I told him what we were giving them.  I told him about the money, the lifting of the sanctions, the access to weapons and soon, the ability to make a very bad bomb. 

 

After all this he looked at me and asked, "what do we get out of it?"  Mr. President, if this third grader can see how bad this deal is so should we. 

 

In conclusion, I urge my fellow Senators to vote against President Obama’s deal with Iran.

 

It's wrong for the United States and for the world.  And as my grandson understood, we are getting a bad deal - one that we should reject.