President Obama should remove the shroud of secrecy from the West's interim nuclear deal with Iran so Americans can see for themselves that it's a bad deal for the United States and its allies, Florida Republican Rep. Iliana Ros-Lehtinen said Friday.
"There is nothing in the deal that should be kept secret from the American public," Ros-Lehtinen, who chairs the Middle East and North Africa subcommittee, told John Bachman on "America's Forum" on Newsmax TV. "I'm certainly not a nuclear scientist and I read it and I'm aghast by it."
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On Wednesday, Ros-Lehtinen
sent a letter to Obama pressing for increased transparency regarding the text of the pact.
"[Obama] keeps telling us how tough they were on Iran, how Iran will stop spinning its centrifuges, they will no longer be enriching, they will no longer not allow inspectors, everything... then why not make [details of the deal] public? Not just for the members of Congress."
She believes if Americans read the details, they will find out the West has "really been snookered by Iran."
"It was a request by certain allies to keep this document private, but there are a lot of special interests and a lot of business interests in this deal," Ros-Lehtinen said. "Because in this interim agreement ... we have now agreed to lift certain sanctions and Iran is going to get such a windfall. What a major profit it has made while they're snookering the West."
Ros-Lehtinen blasted the administration for only enforcing sanctions against Iran "during campaign time."
"Now that the campaign is over... they have not been enforced, so for [Obama] to say that in this interim deal they are going to fully enforce the sanctions, not only do we not believe it, many of us in Congress, but Iran more importantly doesn't believe it."
She argued sanctions were never an impetus to bring Iran to the negotiating table on its nuclear program.
"The goal of sanctions was to cripple the mullahs' economy in Iran, to absolutely destroy the regime economically so that they would not have the money to pursue its nuclear program," she insisted. "Now the administration is putting this false dichotomy that if you're for more sanctions... then you are for going to war with Iran.... That is absolutely hogwash.
"What we're saying is that sanctions are the only thing that is going to keep this lying, murderous, devious regime of the mullahs in Iran honest," she said, adding Iran suspended "absolutely nothing of its nuclear program" during negotiations.
"Pressure is what's going to keep Iran from becoming nuclear capable, not soft diplomacy," she insisted. "The mullahs do not respond to this soft tone of the United States. They only will respond if we keep our boot on their throat."
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