‘Dangerous farce’: Lawmakers rip Iran deal over report Tehran can use own nuke inspectors
Capitol Hill opposition to the Iranian nuclear deal was stoked Wednesday by a bombshell report that Tehran will be allowed to use its own experts to inspect one of the country's most controversial nuclear sites.
"Allowing the Iranians to inspect their own nuclear sites, particularly a notorious military site, is like allowing the inmates to run the jail," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a presidential candidate, said in a statement.
The Associated Press reported Wednesday that, in an unusual and secret agreement with the U.N. agency that normally carries out such work, Iran can use its own experts and equipment in the search for evidence for activities that it has consistently denied -- trying to develop nuclear weapons.
At issue is an investigation of the Parchin nuclear site by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Iran has refused access to Parchin for years and denied any interest in -- or work on -- nuclear weapons. Based on U.S., Israeli and other intelligence and its own research, the IAEA suspects that the Islamic Republic may have experimented with high-explosive detonators for nuclear arms at that military facility and other weapons-related work elsewhere.
Administration objects as Russia moves ahead with Iran missile sale
Despite a ban on arms shipments to Iran under international sanctions, Russia appears willing to proceed with the sale of advanced S-300 surface-to-air missiles to the country -- in a development triggering objections from the Obama administration.
