Cotton believes that the White House has lied to and continues to lie to the representatives of the American people about the Iran nuclear deal, specifically right now about letting Iran have access to the dollar, which the White House said would never happen. The way Cotton sees it, someone in the Obama administration has to answer for all the mendacity.
The problem isn’t really Szubin, as Cotton explained: "Mr. Szubin" he said, "is well respected on both sides of the aisle having worked in the former Bush administration." The problem rather is with the administration that Szubin now answers to— that is, "the community organizer and the failed novelist and the political operative who are in charge of implementing these parts of the Iran nuclear deal," as Cotton said, presumably referring to the president, and two of his chief aides, Ben Rhodes and Valerie Jarrett.
The president calls the shots, but everyone in the White House is implicated even if they don't know exactly what the president has them doing. Cotton is trying to make someone accountable, starting with Szubin and his boss, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew. "Just two or three weeks ago Secretary Jack Lew gave a speech in which he all but announced the United States government was going to allow Iran access to the U.S. dollar," said Cotton.
This would truly unravel every last sanction that we have against Iran, not just for their nuclear program, but for their campaign of aggression and terror throughout the Middle East. This is in direct contradiction to what Secretary Lew said, and in direct contradiction to what Mr. Szubin said. In fact, I would note his testimony before the Banking Committee last summer. "Iranian banks will not be able to clear U.S. dollars through New York, hold correspondent account relationships with U.S. financial institutions, or enter into financing arrangements with U.S. banks. In short, Iran will continue to be denied access to the world's principle financial and commercial market." Further in another quote, "Nor will Iran be able to access the U.S. banking sector even for that momentary transaction that we call dollarize a foreign payment." Yet, Secretary Lew has all but announced that the United States government will allow Iran to dollarize their foreign transactions.
Indeed the White House is apparently working closely with Iran to make dollarization work. After John Kerry met with his Iranian counterpart Mohammed Javad Zarif in New York Monday, the secretary of state was asked if they'd reached an agreement yet on the dollar issue. "We're both working at making sure that the [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action," said Kerry, "is implemented in exactly the way that it was meant to be and that all the parties to that agreement get the benefits that they are supposed to get out of the agreement. So we worked on a number of key things today, achieved progress on it, and we agreed to meet on Friday."
Later that night at the J Street gala ball, Kerry left listeners shaking their heads with further comments regarding the JCPOA. "Do you remember the debate over how much money Iran was going to get?" asked Kerry.
You heard – sometimes you hear some of the presidential candidates putting a mistaken figure out of 155 billion. I've never heard – we never thought it would be that. Others thought it would be about a 100 billion because there was supposedly 100 billion that was owed and so forth. We calculated it to be about $55 billion when you really take a hard look at the economy and what is happening. Guess what, folks; you know how much they have received to date as I stand here tonight? About $3 billion.
In fact, the Iranians themselves announced in February that they had access to $100 billion. But more bizarrely, to some listeners it sounded as though Kerry was reading from Iran's talking points, or as the AP's Matt Lee put it, "he's making the Iranians' argument" that they're not getting their money quickly enough. Giving the Iranians even indirect access to the dollar means more economic relief for the regime.
As I wrote earlier this week, Democrats as well as Republicans are concerned that the White House misled them about the Iran deal. Giving Iran access to dollars, said Rep. Brad Sherman, a Democrat from California, "will set bad precedent." Cotton's move yesterday to block Szubin's confirmation is the first time someone put their foot down.