Thursday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) who first discovered the side deals between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency said Secretary of State John Kerry acted like Pontius Pilate washing his hands of it instead of pushing or walking away when Iran refused to reveal the past military work they’ve done the nuclear program.
Cotton said, “I traveled to Vienna last week to meet the IAEA, specifically to discuss this issue of side deals. They were frank and helpful in saying they reached two secret agreements with Iran about the Parching military complex while Iran is testing nuclear detonators and how they’re going to verify the past military work that Iran has done in the nuclear program. So the State Department confirmed now finally that those agreements, in fact, do exist. But they have not told us the contents of the agreements. So unless Congress gets the contents of these agreements and knows, for example, how the IAEA plans to inspect the Parching military site, I don’t know how they could vote for this deal because it’s based on verification and inspection. And without that information, I don’t see how we can trust the government of Iran.”
He added, “These are two of the most important questions in these negotiations. Iran had almost four years to reveal the past military work they’ve done the nuclear program. Again, the Parching military site is where they tested detonators for nuclear weapons. This may have been a firm line that Iran would not draw and the United States negotiating team simply was unwilling to draw their own line or walk away from the deal. So John Kerry acted like Pontius Pilate. He washed his hands, kicked it to the IAEA knowing Congress wouldn’t get this information unless someone went out to find it.”
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