CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: Iran Nuclear Deal and Terror Threats

Interview

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BLITZER: Joining us now, a very vocal critic of the Iran nuclear deal, Republican Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas. He's a member of the Armed Services and Intelligence Committee. He is also an Iraq War veteran.

Senator, thanks very much for coming in.

The rhetoric is intense. You have caused some of it with your comment. You said Secretary Kerry acted like Pontius Pilate in this nuclear deal, the judge who oversaw Jesus' trial, authorized his crucifixion. What do you mean he acted like Pontius Pilate?

SEN. TOM COTTON (R), ARKANSAS: Well, Wolf, for 2,000 years, Pilate has been a parable for someone who washed his hands of his responsibility.

[18:10:07]

And at the end of these negotiations, it appears that John Kerry washed his hands of his responsibility to reach an agreement on all of the critical issues. Two of those critical issues are where Iran tested allegedly detonators for nuclear weapons at a military base and their other past weaponization work.

Apparently, we couldn't reach an agreement on the central issues and we kicked it to the IAEA to have these two secret side deals with Iran. We don't know what is in those deals. We don't know if it is going to provide adequate inspections and verifications of Iran's obligations. I don't see how Congress can go forward without knowing the details of those two central agreements.

BLITZER: Which is a fair point, which is a good discussion. You can have a serious debate on both sides. But the name-calling is getting so intense. The former governor of your state of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee, saying the president is moving the Israelis toward the door of the oven, a reference to the Holocaust.

Why not tone down the rhetoric and deal with the facts? Pontius Pilate, that's a pretty ugly statement about the secretary of state.

COTTON: Well, I don't question Secretary Kerry's motives. I don't question President Obama's motives. And we're all in this together.

You just saw that tweet of Barack Obama with his gun to his head -- a gun to his head from the supreme leader. And when Iran goes in the streets and they chant, they don't chant death to Democrats or death to Republicans. They chant death to America.

But, as we learn more and more about this deal, there is no doubt that this deal is going to pave the path for Iran to get a nuclear weapon. And it may be in part because John Kerry refused to take on the responsibility to reach an agreement on every single deal.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: And I understand you can criticize him on that, but do you want to revise and amend -- or amend that statement about Pontius Pilate?

COTTON: No, Wolf, Secretary Kerry had a responsibility to represent America's interests and to reach an agreement on every single point. He did not. He apparently watched his hands and kicked it to the IAEA, even though Iran has thwarted the IAEA for years on this very issue.

BLITZER: All right, so I will take it you don't want to revise or amend that statement.

Let's talk about the secret part of the deal. You heard Marie Harf. I don't know if you heard her, the State Department senior adviser. She was here an hour ago. And she said: "Everything will be made known. All the secret arrangements between IAEA and the Iranian government on the inspections, the U.S. has been briefed. The secretary of state has been briefed, and all 535 members of the Senate and the House, if they want to be briefed, they will be briefed on that."

Is that good enough?

COTTON: Wolf, I have had repeated briefings, both in my role as a senator, but also on my role in the Armed Services Committee and the Intelligence Committee.

And I can tell you there is virtually no clarity from the administration about these secret side agreements. At first, the existence was secret, but the contents are still secret. There's been published reports, for instance, just earlier today that we are going to allow Iran to take samples of soil or other environmental elements themselves and send it to the IAEA.

That would be like the NFL letting football players take their own urine samples for drug testing and mail to it Roger Goodell. The American people wouldn't accept that as a credible system. I don't see how Congress can accept this as a credible inspection system until we know the exact details that are in those two secret side agreements. BLITZER: They say they're going to share that with you in a

classified format, because the IAEA, the International Atomic Energy Agency, doesn't want all that information made public.

Here's the question. Assuming they share all secret aspects, side deals of this arrangement, is that adequate for you?

COTTON: Well, Wolf, I have said there's two points about the IAEA's position that this is an agreement between IAEA and Iran.

First, U.S. law requires that every agreement between any of the parties in this overall deal have to be submitted to the United States Congress, first. And, second, this is an unprecedented deal, so you can't cite precedents of the IAEA dealing with countries like South Africa that wanted to cooperate.

This is truly unprecedented. We have to know in Congress on behalf of the American people the exact details of those two side agreements, in my opinion, before we can move forward and cast a vote.

BLITZER: All right, we will see if they share that information, if you're satisfied with the briefing eventually, presumably, you and your colleagues will get.

I want you to stand by. We have more to discuss, including a possibility maybe those four Americans in Iran might be released. We will talk about that, a whole lot more with Senator Cotton when we come back.

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[18:18:24]

BLITZER: We're back with the breaking news. A Florida man, a young man, only 23 years old, under arrest, accused of plotting to explode a bomb in a backpack on a Key West beach.

The U.S. Justice Department says he was in fact inspired by ISIS, wanted to do so allegedly on July 4.

We're back with Senator Tom Cotton. He's a leading member of the Intelligence and Armed Services Committee.

I interviewed the FBI director, James Comey, last week. He said flatly ISIS now represents a bigger terror threat to the U.S. homeland than al Qaeda does. You agree with him?

COTTON: I think Director Comey has a point. I would break it down into two ways, Wolf.

First, just by sheer volume of the threats we face, the Islamic State is the greatest threat to our homeland from a terrorism standpoint. In terms of the magnitude of the possible attack, though, I would still say that al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is a greater threat just because of the skill they have in bomb-making and other techniques. But they're both terrible threats and that's why we have to be on offense, not on defense, because here in Key West, the FBI and our intelligence officers once again did a great job, but, ultimately, it only takes one terrorist to get through to kill Americans.

BLITZER: So ISIS can inspire through social media a lone individual to go out and randomly kill people, But AQAP, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, potentially could still blow up a plane.

COTTON: Take down aircrafts, for instance.

BLITZER: That's a significant development.

Are you on board with the latest developments involving Turkey's about-face, allowing U.S. warplanes to take off from Turkish air bases to attack ISIS targets in Syria? Turkey is now doing so. But at the same time, Turkey is also going after Kurdish targets. And the Kurds, as you know, they have been very, very forceful in their battle against ISIS in support of the U.S. position.

[18:20:07]

COTTON: Well, it is a welcome development that our NATO ally Turkey is going to allow to use Incirlik Air Base, which we have had for decades in Southern Turkey, to conducts airstrikes in Syria.

BLITZER: Because they have refused until now.

COTTON: They have refused until now. That means that our pilots have been flying from over 1,000 miles away, which limits their capabilities, limits their payloads. This will be much more effective.

But as you point out, Wolf, the politics of this on the ground are more complicated. Turkey and the Kurds, especially the PKK, have their differences. In the meantime, Turkey also is going to be very focused on Assad's regime. And this is why all roads ultimately in my opinion lead back to Iran, because it is Iran's support for Assad over the last four years that has made the situation in Iraq so -- or in Syria so much more complicated and has helped the Islamic State have the time and the space to rise to power.

Unless we get serious about addressing Iran's regional ambitions in places like Syria, then our allies are never going to be confident that we have a strategy for the region.

BLITZER: Do you believe Iran -- they're going to get a windfall of cash right now, assuming this deal goes forward, the sanctions are lifted, tens of billions of dollars which the and U.S. the other allies hope they will use domestically for education, infrastructure, whatever, housing.

But you know as well as do I that some of that money is going to be used to promote Bashar al-Assad's regime, for example, their close allies in Syria. COTTON: A lot of that money will be used to promote Assad in Syria, the Houthis in Yemen. It will be used to support Shiite militias in Iraq, the kind of militias that use very lethal roadside bombs.

BLITZER: What can be done to prevent that?

COTTON: I think Congress should vote down this deal and start by not giving them tens of billions of dollars.

BLITZER: Well, presumably, the deal is going to go forward, even if it is rejected in the initial vote. The House and the Senate getting a two-thirds override of a presidential veto seems pretty difficult.

COTTON: Well, the vote count doesn't yet have enough to sustain a presidential veto.

But, Wolf, the point you make is one reason why this deal is so dangerous for U.S. interests. Putting aside -- let's just put to the side the nuclear threat that Iran could pose, even if they follow the deal in eight, 10, 15 years, in the meantime, they are going to get tens of billion of dollars in sanctions relief. And even if a small fraction of that goes to support Shiite militias in Iraq or Hezbollah in Lebanon or Assad in Syria, it will deeply undermine our position in the region and deeply, deeply concern our allies who are already very concerned about America's sticking power.

BLITZER: Senator Cotton, thanks for coming in.

COTTON: Thanks, Wolf.

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