‘Sobering and shocking’: Senators raise red flags after Iran briefing

Senators raised red flags about Tehran’s nuclear program and the shrinking amount of time it would take it to attain a nuclear weapon as they emerged from a closed-door briefing on Wednesday. 

“That was a sobering and shocking briefing about where we are right now,” said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.). “The information we got on breakout time is something we all have to really think about.” 

“It’s just extraordinary how Iran’s nuclear program has advanced since the disastrous decision to leave the JCPOA,” he added, referring to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the 2015 international deal struck on Iran’s nuclear program that former President Trump withdrew from.  

Biden administration officials briefed members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday as the U.S. is taking part in an eighth round of indirect talks with Iran to bring both parties back to the terms of the deal. 

The deal put constraints on Iran’s nuclear activity and included an inspection regime. But opponents argue it did little to limit Iran’s other malign activities, something supporters of the agreement acknowledge it was not intended to do. 

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) acknowledged that it could be hard for both Washington, D.C., and Tehran to re-enter the deal, and called the closed-door briefing “sobering.” 

“It was very easy to predict when the U.S. walked out of the deal that Iran, which had been moved from a few months away from breakout … to a year away, when we walked out of the deal they would resume their activities and get closer again to a breakout moment. And that’s exactly what happened,” Kaine added. 

Senators declined to say what they were told Iran’s current breakout time is, but noted that public reporting has put it at “weeks.” The JCPOA was tied to a one-year breakout time, or the amount of time it takes to produce a weapon’s worth of nuclear material. 

“That’s a very sobering, challenging reality,” said Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez (D-N.J.).  

The prospect of re-entering a deal with Iran has sparked GOP pushback and skepticism. 

“I’ve never been optimistic. I fought the last one,” said Sen. James Risch (Idaho), the top Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee. “You’re just not dealing with people who want to be reasonable.”

Dozens of Republican senators are vowing to block President Biden’s attempts to return the U.S. to the 2015 nuclear deal, underscoring how partisan divisions threaten the deal’s viability. 

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), joined by 31 other Republican senators, wrote a letter to the president on Monday suggesting that the administration is required to submit to Congress agreements reached with Iran related to its nuclear program.  

The letter goes on to raise the possibility that submission of documents related to a deal with Iran will trigger a congressional review and “includes the possibility of Congress blocking implementation of the agreement.” 

It adds that any treaty not ratified by the Senate “is subject to being reversed, and indeed will likely be torn up, in the opening days of the next Presidential administration.”