Iran
Floor Speech
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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, on a separate topic, over the weekend, we learned that the United States and Iran had reached a preliminary deal to end the current conflict. While I am glad that we might be seeing an end to the hostilities, I am deeply concerned about what might be in that agreement.
What was announced was only an end to the fighting, Iran's stranglehold over the Strait of Hormuz, and the U.S. blockade--moves that return us to the status quo before the President's invasion of Iran, over 100 days ago. In fact, after months of being promised an imminent deal by President Trump, the current loose framework stunningly avoids critical issues related to Iran's nuclear program. Don't you remember that was the reason he gave for invading this country?
And from what was being reported, the terms and the sanctions relief sound very similar to an agreement which was reached by President Obama and the Iranian people, before the election of Donald Trump--the JCPOA.
Let me be clear. Iran and its proxies and its nuclear program are all threats to the United States and its allies. But did we really start a war to return to the same deal President Trump abandoned during his first term as President? Is that it?
Now, I have heard my colleagues lament the Obama-era deal was weak and ineffective, compared to what President Trump has negotiated.
Let's be clear on the key points from that Obama agreement. It severely restricted Iran's enrichment capabilities, notably extending nuclear weapon breakout time. It also included some of the most intrusive inspections ever agreed to--international inspections of Iran during the Obama administration.
In fact, I hosted the IAEA Director General a number of times in my office. I sat across from him and asked him point-blank: Are there any doors locked? Are there any doors blocked that you can't get into to find out what is going on?
He said: No. Every time we identify anything like that, they open the doors.
Inspections, though difficult, were working.
The deal included the backing of the P5+1 nations under President Obama. He didn't go it alone, as President Trump did in his invasion of Iran. The nations that joined in supporting the JCPOA of President Obama included, of all things, Russia and China. Today, we stand alone in our negotiations with Iran.
The Obama agreement included specific wording, which said:
Iran reaffirms that under no circumstances will Iran ever seek, develop, or acquire any nuclear weapons.
I was watching one of the television shows yesterday. One of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle obviously missed this point. He said there was no guarantee in terms of nuclear weapons in Iran.
Well, there was never a guarantee, but there was a pledge and a promise--an enforceable one--and enforceable inspections.
It sounds to me, under the best case scenario, in which all enriched uranium--the most dangerous of which was developed under Trump, after he withdrew from the JCPOA--is removed from Iran, we are simply moving toward the same type of agreement all over again, at a cost of billions of dollars to the American taxpayer.
I sure hope my Republican colleagues, who so loudly objected to the JCPOA, will scrutinize Trump's deal with the same zeal and that we have just that opportunity, because we passed a measure, back during the early Obama negotiations, called the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act.
Several Senators joined in that effort and won. Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia still serves in this body.
This was bipartisan legislation, passed overwhelmingly in 2015, which will apply to any new agreement with Iran. The law requires the administration to submit to Congress, within 5 days, any agreement with Iran over its nuclear program, after which the Foreign Relations Committees will hold hearings. And then Congress can vote to approve or disapprove the deal.
So I look forward to a close look at what the final deal looks like. And if, as predicted, it is similar to what Trump abandoned, we have to ask ourselves whether this war was really worth the American lives and the cost in American servicemembers.
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