The Washington Post

House Dems pounce on intel assessment of Iran deal


House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is among a group of Democrats citing a recent intelligence report as further reason to support the nuclear deal with Iran. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen, File)

A group of House Democrats is pouncing on a recent classified intelligence assessment in which the U.S. spy community said it will be able to tell whether Iran is cheating on the nuclear deal, citing it as further evidence for why Congress should support the agreement.

The main line of criticism coming from the naysayers on the deal stems from doubts that the inspections regime will actually have enough access to suspected nuclear development sites to instigate the snap-back procedures that would allow the international community to re-impose sanctions on Tehran. The existence of confidential side agreements between the International Atomic Energy Agency and Iran, though standard practice, is only feeding those fears. And the lack of control – because American inspectors won’t be allowed in themselves – is amplifying the doubts of many on the fence.

The intelligence community’s assessment, though, is that because Iran will be supplying international inspectors with never-before-seen levels of information about their nuclear program, it will be easier to monitor whether Iran is acting in accordance with the deal or not, according to an Associated Press report.

For lawmakers on Capitol Hill trying to drum up support for the Iran deal, the assessment is a well-packaged, on-point answer to the stickiest criticism they’ve had to confront. And shouldn’t that, the group contends, be enough?

“We are confident that this monitoring and the highly intrusive inspections provided for in the agreement – along with our own intelligence capabilities – make it nearly impossible for Iran to develop a covert enrichment effort without detection,” 10 current and former Democratic members of the House Intelligence Committee wrote to their colleagues on Friday.

“You need not take our word for it,” they continued, directing members to the office in the basement of the Capitol where a copy of the intelligence community’s assessment is available for lawmakers to read. Among the 10 who signed the letter were House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the committee’s ranking member.

Congress votes on whether to approve the Iran deal next month, and a majority of both houses is expected to oppose the agreement. But if the White House can keep at least 34 senators or 146 members of the House on their side, opponents won’t be able to come up with a veto-proof majority to override the president’s veto of any vote to disapprove of the Iran deal.

Karoun Demirjian covers defense and foreign policy and was previously a correspondent based in the Post's bureau in Moscow, Russia. Before that, she reported for the Las Vegas Sun as its Washington Correspondent, the Associated Press in Jerusalem, the Chicago Tribune, Congressional Quarterly, and worked at NPR.
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