Defense

House chairman: Administration ‘dropping its bottom-line’ to reach Iran deal

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-Calif.) is joining a growing chorus of GOP lawmakers to raise concerns that the White House is making too many concessions in nuclear talks with Iran. 

“The Obama Administration is dropping its bottom-line by the day,” Royce said in a statement Wednesday, citing media reports that Iran will use its underground nuclear reactor in Fordo for isotope production.

{mosads}“While we once demanded that this hardened mountain-top facility be shut, we are now on the verge of accepting technology there that can quickly be re-engineered for bomb-making fuel,” according to Royce.

He argued that “continued concessions only emboldened Iran’s leaders to press for more,” pointing to incendiary comments by Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that “tore up the weak ‘framework’ agreement reached in April.”

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) have also sounded the alarm ahead of the June 30 deadline to strike a bargain.

“No inspections on Iran’s military sites? Immediate sanctions relief? How come we are not reading about any concessions on the Iranian side?” Royce asked.

“The way these negotiations are moving, it is increasingly difficult to see the Administration striking a meaningful, lasting agreement that would be acceptable to Congress,” he said.