Prominent Senate and House Republicans are collecting signatures on nearly identical draft letters to President Donald Trump insisting that any nuclear deal with Iran must include the full dismantlement of the regime’s nuclear program and that the verification protocols from the original 2015 nuclear deal are no longer a viable option, Jewish Insider has learned.

The letters indicate a concerted effort among congressional Republicans to emphasize to the Trump administration that they expect that any deal with Iran will mandate full dismantlement of Iran’s nuclear program, in the wake of inconsistent comments from top administration officials on that issue. 

The draft Senate letter is led by Sens. Pete Ricketts (R-NE) and Ted Cruz (R-TX). Ricketts and Cruz both sit on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and have taken a hard line toward Iran. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee who has emerged as a prominent voice for full dismantlement of Iran’s nuclear program, is also supportive, JI has learned.

Rep. August Pfluger (R-TX) is circulating a similar letter for signatures in the House, a copy of which was also reviewed by JI. He chairs the influential conservative Republican Study Committee, the largest GOP caucus in the House, which counts nearly three-quarters of House Republicans among its membership. A military veteran, he’s also a prominent hawkish voice in the House GOP on national security matters.

The letters state that signatories aim “to express our strong support for your efforts to secure a deal with Iran that dismantles its nuclear program, and to reinforce the explicit warnings that you and officials in your administration have issued that the regime must permanently give up any capacity for enrichment.”

The letters make the case that, due to the expansion of Iran’s nuclear program, it is not possible to comprehensively monitor the country’s nuclear enrichment under any agreement that allows such enrichment to continue.

“The scope and breadth of Iran’s nuclear buildout have made it impossible to verify any new deal that allows Iran to continue enriching uranium,” the letters continue. “In its most recent report, published on February 26, the International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed that because of Iran’s activities over the last four years, ‘the Agency has lost continuity of knowledge in relation to the production and current inventory of centrifuges, rotors and bellows, heavy water and UOC, which it will not be possible to restore.’”

The letters further highlight that Trump considered continued Iranian enrichment to be a “fatal flaw” of the original 2015 deal, eventually allowing Iran to reach the point of nuclear breakout. They blast the Biden administration for “functionally reimplementing the nuclear deal,” accusing the Biden administration of unwinding Trump’s maximum pressure campaign and praising Trump’s first-term efforts.

“We cannot afford another agreement that enables Iran to play for time, as the JCPOA did. The Iranian regime should know that the administration has Congressional backing to ensure their ability to enrich uranium is permanently eliminated,” the Senate letter reads.

In a statement to JI, Cruz reiterated the stance laid out in the letter.

“President Trump is right and his critics are wrong,” Cruz said. “He understands better than anyone that the Ayatollah has cheated on every deal he’s ever been in, and the IAEA has confirmed that any deal that includes any enrichment can’t be verified. This letter will confirm that Republicans in Congress support the President’s redline.”