Oh, good: UN side deal lets Iran self-inspect its own nuke site

Don't worry. This is fine. Everyone has known for years that Iran was working to develop weapons at its Parchin nuclear site, so when Iran sends in its own inspectors to gather soil samples, take pictures and send everything to the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency . . . dude, why would they lie? You don't think a super-tough negotiator like John Kerry would accept a provision that would make it that easy for the mad mullahs to thumb their noses at the vaunted deal and just keep right on doing what they've been doing, do you? Ha.

No wonder the White House and the IAEA wanted to keep this secret. Props to the Associated Press, which we beat up on a lot around here, for reporting this:

The Parchin agreement was worked out between the IAEA and Iran. The United States and the five other world powers were not party to it but were briefed by the IAEA and endorsed it as part of the larger package. On Wednesday, White House National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said the Obama administration was "confident in the agency's technical plans for investigating the possible military dimensions of Iran's former program. ... The IAEA has separately developed the most robust inspection regime ever peacefully negotiated." All IAEA member countries must give the agency some insight into their nuclear programs. Some are required to do no more than give a yearly accounting of the nuclear material they possess. But nations— like Iran — suspected of possible proliferation are under greater scrutiny that can include stringent inspections. The agreement in question diverges from normal procedures by allowing Tehran to employ its own experts and equipment in the search for evidence of activities it has consistently denied — trying to develop nuclear weapons. Olli Heinonen, who was in charge of the Iran probe as deputy IAEA director general from 2005 to 2010, said he could think of no similar concession with any other country.

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Remember, the side agreement has to be approved by the IAEA's board, and that includes the U.S. So when Obama and Kerry try to claim (which they will) that this side deal was developed outside their purview, check and see how the U.S. votes on the board resolution to approve it. What do you think the answer is going to be? Oh, by the way, that's not all. Remember those "snapback sanctions" that would immediately go into effect upon any discovery that Iran was cheating on the deal? Yeah, well not only are other nations under no obligation to get on board with that, but Obama has apparently sent them a letter saying it's perfectly fine with him if they ignore this provision. Hat tip to Allahpundit at Hot Air for this one, and to Marco Rubio and Mark Kirk for calling Kerry out on it:

Indeed, 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. 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 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.

So Congress has seen the letter, which is not classified, but is bound I guess by some sort of agreement not to release it to the public - even as it urges the White House to release the letter itself. How much you want to bet that if we had a Republican president and a Democrat Congress, this letter would be in the hands of the New York Times before morning deadlines? The problem with all this, of course, is that still may not matter. Because of the ridiculous Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act, Mitch McConnell and John Boehner have surrendered Congress's constitutional role in ratifying the treaty and have given Obama carte blanche to go ahead and make it official as long as he can sustain the veto of a disapproval bill by hanging onto just one-third of either (not necessarily both) the House or the Senate. That means he could lose quite a few Democrats in addition to the entire Republican majority in both houses, and still have his deal. How's that looking? Here's a quote from Nancy Pelosi uttered after news of the secret side agreement came out: "I truly believe in this agreement." Yep. I guess we'll just have to count the days until President Trump rips it up.