UN watchdog to brief wary Democrats on Iran program

WASHINGTON: Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez has invited the top United Nations nuclear watchdog for a briefing on Iran's nuclear program that puts the top Senate Democrat on a collision course with President Joe Biden's plan to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

"Iran's refusal to cooperate with the IAEA is setting a dangerous precedent and weakening the global non-proliferation regime," the New Jersey senator wrote to International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi in a Sept. 20 letter obtained by the Washington Examiner. "If Iran is allowed to frustrate the IAEA's efforts without consequence, other states are likely to follow its example and similarly defy IAEA requests for access to nuclear sites or resist providing the IAEA with complete nuclear declarations."

Menendez requested that the IAEA provide "a briefing as soon as possible on the situation," which the Vienna-based Grossi is expected to provide during a visit to Washington on Oct. 19. That invitation reflects, among other things, bipartisan anxiety about Iran's refusal to answer questions about nuclear material detected at three secret sites - a standoff that some lawmakers say should preclude Secretary of State Antony Blinken's efforts to negotiate a mutual return to compliance with the nuclear deal, known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. "It's in violation of its NPT obligations," Menendez told the Washington Examiner, referring to the Non-Proliferation Treaty. "I don't know how we can go into any negotiation, and much less an agreement, unless Iran comes clean and we know what they did, what they're doing, and therefore you can move forward."