Three top House Republicans sent a letter to the Biden administration this week expressing “deep concern” about potential threats to national security from an alleged agreement being kept under wraps between the U.S. and Iran.
The Monday letter — signed by House Foreign Affairs Chairman Michael McCaul (Texas), House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (La.), and House Republican Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik (N.Y.) — criticizes the deal as dangerous for releasing $6 billion in frozen funds to Iran for the freeing of five American prisoners.
The letter also accuses the administration of reaching a secret nuclear understanding with Tehran in the agreement.
The Republicans referred to a Wall Street Journal report earlier this month that indicates Iran slowed its uranium enrichment process and the capabilities required to build a nuclear weapon, which they said “coincided” with news of the prisoner exchange deal.
“Taken together, this strongly suggests your Administration has contemporaneously brokered a $6 billion prisoner deal and a nuclear ‘understanding’ with the regime that are inextricably linked,” they wrote.
“Any such deal or understanding with Iran that does not permanently and completely halt Iran’s
nuclear enrichment raises concerns that your administration is entrenching an Iranian nuclear
program that threatens U.S. national security,” lawmakers continued.
House Republican leaders said that, if true, the agreement would break a provision in the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015 requiring the administration to notify Congress of any decision regarding Iran’s nuclear program.
The Biden administration has denied that any talks with Iran on the prisoner exchange and funding release are tied to nuclear conversations. The State Department has also said conversations and negotiations are still ongoing.
President Biden has sought unsuccessfully to revive a scrapped nuclear deal with Iran, called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, that lifts sanctions on Tehran in return for the country not pursuing nuclear weapons development.
The deal, which was publicly confirmed by the administration earlier this month, unfreezes $6 billion of funds held in South Korea from Iran’s oil sales for the release of the five Americans who were recently transferred to house arrest in Tehran. The U.S. also plans to release some Iranian prisoners in the agreement.
Republicans have slammed the deal because they say it would end up funding Iran’s military, which has seized U.S.-bound oil tankers and backed militias in Syria that have attacked American troops.
The administration has said the funds are being held at a bank in Qatar, where they would be released only for humanitarian assistance.
In the letter Monday, House Republican leaders argued the deal would also encourage Iran to take more hostages in the future.
“If the United States government continues to pay for hostages, Iran will keep taking them, and may demand a higher price every time,” the lawmakers said. “Our citizens deserve answers about why your administration is rewarding an Iranian regime that is targeting Americans overseas and at home.”