Kirk: Senate Will Shoot Down Iran Deal with '$160B Slush Fund for Nukes, Missiles, Terrorism'

A co-author of tough Iran sanctions legislation vowed that the Senate will stop what’s expected to be a bad deal coming out of the Vienna talks soon.

The Senate will not approve an #Iran deal with a $160 billion slush fund for their nukes, missiles and terrorism.

— Mark Kirk (@SenatorKirk) July 12, 2015

Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) also said in a statement that he’s “gravely concerned we soon will see an agreement that enables Iran, the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism, to keep vast nuclear capabilities without subjecting it to snap nuclear inspections anytime and at any place, including military facilities.”

“Worse, the agreement is set to blow an irreparable hole in the international sanctions regime, easing a U.N. arms embargo while also giving Iran back as much as $160 billion in frozen assets,” Kirk said. “If the administration cannot say ‘no’ to an Iran deal with bad terms, then Congress must act.”

His sanctions legislation partner, Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), was expected to make comments after an event in his home state this morning.

“I think there’s a broad bipartisan skepticism at what this deal is. Prime Minister Netanyahu said rather than prevent Iran from gaining a nuclear weapon, it actually paves the way. And that appears to be the case,” Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) said this morning on Fox.

“If the previous vote on the congressional approval process is any indication, there is broad bipartisan concern about this,” Cornyn added. “This idea that we would release these sanctions and the arms embargo and give them more money, more weapons … seems crazy.”

“Our adversaries no longer fear us and our friends no longer trust us.”

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) told NBC on Sunday that terms of a nuclear deal with Iran have “been on a downward trend for some time.”

“We’ve moved towards managing their proliferation, and there are some key issues that remain that I hope we will hold firm to,” Corker said. “We’ve got to ensure that this is verifiable, that we have any time, anywhere inspections, that they are accountable, that we know what their previous military dimensions were. We have access to all of their scientists. We know they were building a bomb. We just want to know how far they got in previous efforts.”

“Likely Iran will cheat by inches, meaning they will just cheat, cheat, cheat. And over time it’s like boiling an egg. They end up with a nuclear weapon.”