- Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said he has requested a briefing from the administration as well as an opportunity to review text of the deal.
- Senior U.S. officials say text of the preliminary deal could be released sometime this week.
- Thune says Congress will likely need to weigh in on later parts of the deal, such as Iran's nuclear program.
Top congressional Republicans are requesting more information from the White House on its preliminary deal with Iran to end the monthslong conflict in the Middle East, but information has so far been scarce.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters on Tuesday that his office has requested a briefing with administration officials as soon as possible, but a meeting has not yet been scheduled. Thune said he also has asked to review the text of the memorandum of understanding outlining the deal with Iran, but he is still awaiting details.
“We haven’t seen anything yet, so there’s nothing really at this point to react to,” Thune said. “What we’ve heard about it, obviously, is that it’s a sort of a framework to allow for discussions to continue — but I think at the end of the day, the goal here is to make sure that Iran ends its nuclear program, and whatever financial incentives they have should be conditioned upon that. But we’ll see when we know more.”
Sen. Curtis says Congress should vote on deal
It’s not yet clear if Congress will have an opportunity to weigh in on the deal. But top Republicans say once agreements are made in relation to Iran’s nuclear program, Congress will likely need to approve parameters of a deal.
“I assume that Congress is going to — we’re going to need to be heard from on this if there’s a deal that deals with a nuclear program,” Thune said.
A number of lawmakers said they believe Congress should have the opportunity to weigh in on the deal, including Utah Sen. John Curtis.
“Absolutely,” Curtis told the Deseret News. “That was one of the problems with President Obama’s deal.”
Curtis was referring to the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act, which passed Congress in 2015 to ensure lawmakers had a say in then-President Barack Obama’s deal with Iran. That law now assures any nuclear deal receives a vote in Congress.
“Under our law, any nuclear deal with Iran will be sent to Congress for review and a vote,” Sen. Lindsey Graham said in a statement. “I look forward to reviewing the final product and I believe it is imperative that the architect of the deal, Vice President Vance and his negotiating partners, be part of the process in presenting the final deal to Congress.”
Congressional leaders yet to be briefed
Thune noted that the Gang of Eight, a colloquial term referring to top congressional leaders and lawmakers who oversee national intelligence, has not been briefed — which is somewhat unusual considering the deal was signed over the weekend.
Federal law requires the president to keep congressional intelligence committees “fully and currently informed of the intelligence activities of the United States, including any significant anticipated intelligence activity,” according to Congress.gov.
It’s not clear if protocol calls for congressional leaders to explicitly request briefings or if they are offered by administration officials.
“Since I’ve been in this job, we haven’t had this issue, so I don’t know the answer to that,” Thune said on Tuesday. “They understand they’re going to have to, I think they’ve intimated as much, that they’ve got to get this in front of us. And hopefully that’ll happen sooner rather than later. But you know, obviously it sounds like they’re not going public with it until later in the week, so we’ll see.”
Thune said he expects a briefing from the administration once the text of the memorandum is made public, which is set to happen at some point this week. The Deseret News contacted the White House for comment.
Senior U.S. officials told reporters in a press call on Monday the text could be made available within the next day or so, although President Donald Trump has said it could be after the deal is officially signed on Friday.
“I would like to get a formal setting first before we do that, but I have no problem with that,” Trump told reporters on Tuesday. “I will go over the document with the media in a couple of days.”
What do we know about U.S.-Iran MOU?
The agreement, described as a “memorandum of understanding” by senior U.S. officials, was signed by both Trump and Vice President JD Vance over the weekend as well as by Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, speaker of the Iranian parliament. The framework establishes an agreement to cease military action for 60 days as officials in both countries continue negotiations on longer-term issues.
The initial framework is a commitment from Iran to work with the U.S. to verify it is not developing a nuclear weapon nor is it “funding radicalism and terrorism in the region,” according to senior U.S. officials. If those expectations are met, the U.S. will welcome Iran into the world economy by offering “a combination of sanctions relief and other economic measures.”