Kirk and 30 Senators Send Letter to Secretary Kerry Warning Against Unacceptable Nuclear Concessions to Iran

WASHINGTON, DC — U.S. Senator Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) and 30 Senators sent a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry warning against making any unacceptable nuclear concessions to Iran. As the United States and other world powers resume talks with Iran for a new nuclear agreement, U.S. negotiators are reportedly considering the specific unacceptable nuclear concessions that the Senators warn against in their letter.

“[Under Secretary of State] Wendy Sherman and her team are getting desperate, floating these so-called ‘creative solutions’ to hide the fact that they haven’t gotten Iran to agree to a single irreversible step to eliminate Iran’s nuclear weapons capability,” Senator Kirk said today in announcing the letter.

In the letter dated September 19th, the Senators wrote that “we have learned that the United States and its P5+1 negotiating partners may now be offering troubling nuclear concessions to Iran in the hopes of rapidly concluding negotiations for a ‘deal’,” adding: “Given that a nuclear Iran poses the greatest long-term threat to the security of the United States, Israel, and other allies, we are gravely concerned about the possibility of any new agreement that, in return for further relief of U.S.-led international sanctions, would allow Iran to produce explosive nuclear material.”

The letter was also signed by Senators Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), John Boozman (R-Ark.), John Hoeven (R-N.D.), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Daniel Coats (R-Ind.), Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), John Cornyn (R-Tex.), Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), Michael B. Enzi (R-Wyo.), Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Dean Heller (R-Nev.), Tim Scott (R-S.C.), Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.), James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.), Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), John Thune (R-S.D.), Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), Mike Johanns (R-Neb.), David Vitter (R-La.), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Roger F. Wicker (R-Miss.), James E. Risch (R-Idaho) and Thad Cochran (R-Miss.).

A copy of the letter can be viewed here. The full text of the letter is below:

September 19, 2014

The Honorable John Kerry
Secretary of State
U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20520

Dear Secretary Kerry:

As nuclear talks with Iran resume in New York this week, we have learned that the United States and its P5+1 negotiating partners may now be offering troubling nuclear concessions to Iran in the hopes of rapidly concluding negotiations for a “deal.”

Given that a nuclear Iran poses the greatest long-term threat to the security of the United States, Israel, and other allies, we are gravely concerned about the possibility of any new agreement that, in return for further relief of U.S.-led international sanctions, would allow Iran to produce explosive nuclear material.  We therefore ask that you provide immediate answers to the following questions.

(1) Will the Administration propose or accept an alternative to dismantlement of Iranian centrifuges for uranium enrichment?  Is the so-called “disconnection” of centrifuges or centrifuge cascades acceptable to the Administration as part of a deal with Iran?

(2) Will the Administration propose or accept an alternative to the elimination of Iranian centrifuges?  Is it instead considering limits on the annual output of Iran’s fleet of centrifuges, as measured in annual separative work units (“annual SWU”) caps, as part of a deal with Iran?

(3) Will the Administration propose or accept anything less than the dismantlement of the heavy water reactor at Arak, a nuclear facility that a former high-ranking U.S. State Department official once dubbed a “plutonium bomb factory”?

(4) Will the Administration propose or accept a new nuclear agreement with Iran that would have a duration of 20 years or less?

We look forward to your prompt reply.

Sincerely,