Defense Drumbeat

Today, Rep Mac Thornberry (R-TX), Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, discussed the Iran Deal with Wolf Blitzer ahead of tomorrow's full committee hearing titled "Potential Implications in the Region of the Iran Deal". The Committee will hear from Michael Singh and Michael Eisenstadt, both of the Washington Institute, and Dr. Jon Alterman of CSIS. For more details on tomorrow's hearing click here.

"There are three basket of concerns, one is, will this deal be enforceable and verifiable, ...is it a good deal or not, ...the third is all of Iran's other activities."

"It essentially ratifies Iran as a nuclear threshold state."

"But I also think there are increasing questions about verification, so for example just last week a major expose on how the inspectors in Syria, who were supposed to be looking for chemical weapons, were thwarted... What's going to be different in Iran to make sure they comply versus what has happened in Syria where it turns out they did not give up all of their chemical weapons..."

"One point on which opponents and supporters all agree, is that this potential deal has far reaching consequences..."