Marco Rubio Pushes John Kerry for More Transparency on Iran Deal

U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., who is running for the Republican presidential nomination, teamed up with U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., on Wednesday to urge U.S. Sec. of State John Kerry to release letters sent to other nations on President Barack Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran. 

Rubio and Kirk pointed to letters sent to the British, Chinese, French and German governments on sanctions. None of those letters have been released to the public. 

“The documents submitted by the administration to Congress include non-public letters that you sent to the French, British, German, and Chinese governments on the consequences of sanctions snap-back,” the senators wrote. “These letters appear to reassure these foreign governments that their companies may not be impacted if sanctions are re-imposed in response to Iranian violations of the agreement. While administration officials have claimed that this is not the case, we think it is important for the American public to be able to read your assurances to foreign governments for themselves as their elected representatives review this deal in the coming weeks.
 
“We therefore request the administration to publicly release these letters, which are not classified, so that the full extent of the administration’s non-public assurances to European and Chinese governments can be discussed openly by Congress and analyzed by impartial outside experts,” continued the senators. “Given the conflicting interpretations hinted at by the deal’s various stakeholders, it would also ease congressional review of the deal if you were to receive assurances from the other members of the P5+1 about the guidance they will provide to companies about the inherent risks of investing in Iran due to Iran’s ongoing support for terrorism and use of its financial system for illicit activities and the potential for sanctions to snap back if Iran violates the nuclear agreement.”