In the News

Congressman Connolly issued the following statement on the Iran nuclear deal:

My decision to support the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) negotiated between the P5+1 and Iran is grounded in the hard reality that the alternative to this nuclear agreement is an opaque and unconstrained Iranian nuclear program hanging like the sword of Damocles over the security of the U.S. and our allies, including Israel.

The false hope offered by critics of the agreement is a return to the negotiating table to seek a better deal. The proposition that we would renounce our own agreement wrought by more than a year of tough negotiations and expect our negotiating partners – including Russia, China, and, of course, Iran itself – to sit back down at the table is a specious if not delusional argument.

We should not be naïve about the scenario in which Congress rejects this agreement brokered by the United States. Among our allies, we would divest ourselves of the goodwill that undergirded the American-led negotiations. Among our adversaries, we would confirm their suspicion that we are not to be trusted. The international sanctions regime that drove Iran to the table would collapse and our diplomatic leverage would be severely diminished in all future negotiations. 

Most concerning of all, we would return once again to a situation of deep anxiety and uncertainty regarding Iran’s nuclear ambitions. 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 military action – an option General Michael Hayden has stated would "guarantee that which we are trying to prevent, an Iran that will stop at nothing, in secret, to develop a nuclear weapon." Repeated military engagements incrementally beating back a secret Iranian nuclear program seem a fateful and ominous alternative to the diplomatic path laid before us.

Critics of the JCPOA have offered no alternative, and have tried to define this agreement by what it is not. It is not the perfect deal that dismantles every nut and bolt of the Iranian nuclear program, and it is not a comprehensive resolution of the myriad issues the U.S. and our allies have with the repressive regime in Tehran and its reprehensible support for terrorist insurgencies in the region. No one ever said it would be.

It is, however, a viable alternative to war that takes the Iranian nuclear issue off of the table and secures permanent commitments from Iran regarding the peaceful nature of its nuclear program. In other words, it is the diplomatic alternative we sought to attain when we entered into negotiations.

As a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee (HFAC), I have participated in classified and unclassified briefings with military officials, the intelligence community, and international nuclear inspection experts regarding the P5+1 negotiations with Iran. HFAC has conducted nearly two dozen hearings on the subject, and I have carefully reviewed the JCPOA, its annexes, and the accompanying Verification Assessment Report. 

This deal adheres to the high standards for verification, transparency, and compliance on which any acceptable agreement with Iran must be founded.  The JCPOA erects an unprecedented and intrusive inspections regime that provides the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) with access to declared nuclear facilities and suspected covert nuclear development sites. Additionally, the IAEA will be able to monitor Iran’s entire nuclear program supply chain – including uranium mines and mills, centrifuge rotors and bellows production and storage facilities, and a dedicated procurement channel for nuclear-related or dual use materials and technology.

The JCPOA also rolls back major components and existing capabilities of the Iranian nuclear program. For at least 15 years, there will be no new enrichment facilities in Iran, uranium enrichment will be capped at 3.67% (well below weapons grade enrichment levels), there will be no enrichment research or fissile material at the underground facility at Fordow, and, after the heavy water research reactor in Arak is redesigned and rebuilt to not produce weapons grade plutonium, no new heavy water reactors will be constructed in Iran.  Under the agreement, Iran must reduce its stockpile of enriched uranium by 98 percent and its number of installed centrifuges by two-thirds. These measures will extend Iran’s nuclear breakout time from 2 months to at least 1 year. If these restrictions are not adhered to, the U.S. can at any time unilaterally revive the international sanctions regime currently in place.

Congress should immediately begin to conduct close oversight to ensure that the terms of the JCPOA are implemented and that Iran is living up to its obligations. More broadly, the U.S. must signal to Iran that its condemnable record on human rights, terrorism, and regional subversion will not be tolerated, and that the JCPOA does not restrict in any way our national security prerogative or the security commitments we have made to our allies, especially Israel.

Article 1, Section 8, Clause 11 of the Constitution vests Congress with the duty to authorize war. Implicit in that text is Congress’ additional responsibility to exhaust all reasonable alternatives before committing the American people and our men and women in uniform to such a fateful path. The JCPOA represents our endeavor to provide that alternative. It is the product of earnest diplomacy, and Congress should support it.