U.S. State Department misses deadline to explain Iran arms control report: aide [View all]
Posted on Sat, May 25th, 2019 by Sarah Jones
U.S. State Department misses deadline to explain Iran arms control report: aide
By Arshad Mohammed and Jonathan Landay
WASHINGTON (Reuters)
The U.S. State Department failed to meet a deadline on Thursday to provide information to three congressional committee chairmen looking into whether an annual arms control report slanted and politicized assessments about Iran, a congressional aide said.
In a May 16 letter, the Democratic chairmen of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs, Armed Services and Intelligence committees asked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to provide a State Department briefing and documents no later than Thursday.
The chairmens letter cited a Reuters article on April 17 about how the administrations annual report to Congress on global compliance with international arms control accords provoked a dispute with U.S. intelligence agencies and some State Department officials.
The dissenting officials, sources said, were concerned that the document politicized and skewed assessments against Iran in a bid to lay the groundwork to justify military action.
A U.S. official familiar with the issue and speaking on condition of anonymity said the chairmen were to be invited to a briefing by State Department and other government experts about the report on adherence to and compliance with arms control, nonproliferation and disarmament agreements and commitments.
The congressional aide, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said no such communication had been received.
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https://www.politicususa.com/2019/05/25/u-s-state-department-misses-deadline-to-explain-iran-arms-control-report-aide.html