Lawmakers question Iran’s lack of cooperation with nuclear inspectors

A group of 354 House members urged Secretary of State John Kerry to keep close watch on whether Iran allows nuclear inspectors to review its facilities as international negotiators work on an agreement.

In a letter to Kerry, the lawmakers, led by House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-Calif.) and the panel’s top Democrat, Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), said that Iran’s cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency was telling.

{mosads}”We believe that Iran’s willingness to fully reveal all aspects of its nuclear program is a fundamental test of Iran’s intention to uphold a comprehensive agreement,” they wrote.

The lawmakers said that allowing Iran to bar the International Atomic Energy Agency to see its nuclear facilities would limit the ability to verify restrictions made under an agreement on the country’s nuclear program.

“We are concerned that an agreement that accepts Iran’s lack of transparency on this key issue would set the dangerous precedent that certain facilities and aspects of Iran’s nuclear program can be declared off limits by Tehran, resulting in additional wide-ranging restrictions on IAEA inspectors, and making effective verification virtually impossible,” they wrote.

Members of House leadership also signed onto the letter, including Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) and Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.).

International negotiators have until Nov. 24 to reach an agreement, a deadline which has already been extended from earlier this year.