GOP chairman doubles down on concerns over Iran talks

A senator is doubling down on concerns that the Obama administration has lost the upper hand in the nuclear talks with Iran.

Earlier this week Secretary of State John Kerry said that a final agreement between Iran and Western powers might not require Iran to detail suspected previous efforts to develop a nuclear weapon.

“We are not fixated on Iran specifically accounting for what they did at one point in time or another,” Kerry said Tuesday.

The State Department has since downplayed the comment, but Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) isn’t about to gloss over it.

“Last year, the administration assured our committee that the questions and concerns regarding Iran’s previous weaponization efforts would be resolved before a final agreement is reached and any sanctions relieved,” Corker said Friday in a statement.

Kerry’s remarks “have only raised further doubts about the administration holding firm on demands that Iran come clean about past military aspects of its nuclear program,” Corker added.

Corker repeated a suggestion he made earlier this week that the “administration should walk away and make good on their promise that no deal is better than a bad deal if there is anything less than full disclosure up front from Iran and the ability to conduct inspections anytime, anywhere.”

In May the president signed into law legislation that gives Congress 30 days to disapprove any final nuclear agreement, during which he could not lift congressional sanctions on Iran.

If Congress votes to reject the deal, the administration would have 12 days to veto the resolution of disapproval. Congress would then have 10 extra days to try to override the veto.