Las Vegas Sun

March 19, 2024

Why Energy Secretary Moniz is so bullish on the Iran nuclear deal

Ernest Moniz

Andrew Harnik / AP

Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, July 29, 2015, before the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the impacts of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on U.S. Interests and the Military Balance in the Middle East.

U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz says that the recently negotiated agreement among Iran, the United States, the U.N. Security Council and the European Union will keep a nuclear weapon out of the hands of the Iranian government “forever.”

Moniz’s comments came just ahead of the news on Wednesday that the White House had secured a sufficient number of votes in the Senate to block at Republican-led effort to block the deal.

“We pushed them back,” says Moniz, the former head of the physics department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was influential along with Secretary of State John Kerry in crafting the deal — and then lobbying for it on Capitol Hill.

He defends the agreement as a better alternative to the status quo, arguing that without it, “we could have tomorrow an Iran that expands enrichment dramatically.”

The deal, which lasts over the next 15 years, would reduce the number of centrifuges and size of Iran's uranium stockpile, in exchange for lifting economic sanctions and unfreezing hundreds of millions of dollars of Iranian assets.

National Republicans and some Democrats have criticized the agreement as too lenient on Iran, which the State Department lists as a state sponsor of terrorism. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called the accords a “historic mistake.”

In making a case for the deal, Moniz, who holds a doctorate in theoretical physics from Stanford, drew on his scientific background: “Iran’s stockpile of low-enriched uranium will be cut back from 12,000 kilograms — enough for 10 weapons — to 300 kilograms, way below what is needed to build one weapon.”

Moniz also said the deal would ban Iran for the next 10 years from introducing a new, more powerful enrichment machine.

Congressional Republicans will vote on a measure to block the deal later this month.

Nevada Sen. Harry Reid has said he will vote in favor of the agreement. Sen. Dean Heller joined GOP Reps. Mark Amodei, Cresent Hardy and Joe Heck in opposition of the deal. Based on current vote counts, an attempt to block the deal in the Senate is expected to fail.

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