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Congressman Gerry Connolly issued the following statement on today's historic agreement to curb Iran's nuclear program and block nuclear weapons development in exchange for relief from sanctions. 

"The final Iranian nuclear agreement announced by the P5+1 earlier this morning is the product of earnest diplomacy, but much work remains before we can deem this effort a success.

"Verification, transparency, and compliance are the foundation of any acceptable agreement.  This begins with an intrusive inspections regime capable of assuring the world that Iran’s nuclear program is entirely peaceful.

"Absent the implementation of an acceptable nuclear agreement with Iran, the Iranian nuclear program would once again be opaque and no longer restrained by strict limitations. The countries of the world that have a strict policy of preventing a nuclear Iran, including the U.S. and a number of our allies, would be left with a scenario that could demand immediate and decisive action. Our remaining options would be limited in both variety and efficacy. During General Michael Hayden’s testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa in November 2014 he affirmed that the euphemistically termed “kinetic” option would 'guarantee that which we are trying to prevent, an Iran that will stop at nothing, in secret, to develop a nuclear weapon.'

"The diplomacy conducted by Secretary Kerry and his negotiating team has offered the world a potential alternative to the "kinetic" option. As a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, I will be carefully reviewing the text of the agreement to determine if it meets the high standard to which we should hold a nuclear agreement with Iran.

"The bipartisan Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015 enacted in May requires that the President transmit the text of the agreement to Congress within 5 calendar days. Upon receipt of the agreement and technical annexes, Congress will conduct its appropriate and statutory duty to review the merits of the deal concluded by negotiators."