The Republican chairman and ranking Democrat on the US House Foreign Relations Committee are circulating a bipartisan letter to President Barack Obama highlighting concerns about a prospective deal the US and its partners are negotiating with Iran over its nuclear program, the Associated Press reported. Chairman Rep. Ed Royce of California and Rep. Eliot Engel of New York on Monday released the draft letter that cites concern about the size of Iran’s current uranium enrichment program, the slow pace of Iran’s cooperation with international inspectors and a need for decades-long verifiable constraints on Iran’s program. The letter says the US Congress must be convinced that the terms of any deal close any pathway Iran might have to developing a nuclear weapon and that only then will Congress be able to consider easing economic sanctions. Iran denies its nuclear program may have any military objectives, saying the work is solely for peaceful applications.
