The US House of Representatives gets a full serving of Iran in the coming week before leaving for its monthlong summer recess.
The lower chamber will hold no fewer than three separate hearings on various aspects of the relationship with Tehran. The hearings are a last chance to hear from the Obama administration and experts before a five-week break during which lawmakers will be deluged with pressure from both sides to either kill or support the deal when they come back after Labor Day.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee kicks things off July 28 with Secretary of State John Kerry, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew and Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz. The three witnesses appeared July 23 before the Senate Foreign Relations panel, where Republicans accused them of getting “fleeced” and “bamboozled” in the nuclear talks.
Later that afternoon of July 28, the committee’s terrorism panel, Middle East and North Africa panel and Asia panel hold a joint hearing on the Iran’s alleged “strategic alliance” with North Korea. Critics of the Iran deal have increasingly drawn comparisons with President Bill Clinton’s ultimately failed 1994 nuclear deal with North Korea, although a case can be made that it was the United States under President George W. Bush that walked out on that agreement — and then did nothing as Pyongyang hurtled toward a nuclear weapon.
AL-MONITOR All-Access gives you unlimited access to all our journalism, the full Daily Briefing, exclusive interviews, premium newsletters, and live events — for less than $2/week.