CNN
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Six days after we attacked Iran’s nuclear facilities, White House officials told Congressmen they were focusing on bringing Tehran back to negotiations.
“One of the things discussed this morning is that Iran needs to sit at the table with us, not through good speeches, negotiations, third parties, but through other countries,” Mike Johnson told reporters Friday.
That message of diplomacy was submitted by Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Marco Rubio told Congress he wanted to meet “one-on-one” with Iranian leaders, not “third parties” but “third parties,” according to another Republican lawmaker, who is Texas Rep. Michael McCall.
However, the former foreign affairs committee chairman was one of several House members who told CNN he was personally “skeptical.”
But President Donald Trump’s next step on diplomacy with Iran has not been revealed, lawmakers said. Rep. Jim Himez, a top Democrat on the House Intelligence Election Committee, said no one in the administration has suggested that “there was an overture or debate that was happening right now.”
And Trump himself promoted uncertainty in his next step with Iran, and on Friday afternoon he told him that future military strikes would actually be on the table if the US learned that Tehran was working to once again enrich the uranium richness. Shortly afterwards, the president blows up his unhappy life with Iranian leaders, confirming that Trump was considering “possibility of removal of sanctions” to help Iran, but opposed it after explaining Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s recent victory over Israel and the United States.
Like the Senate briefing a day ago, many Democrats emerged from an hourly House briefing from Trump administration officials, with more questions about US decisions in Iran, including the decision not to examine plans in Congress, and strategies for the next few weeks.
House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries told CNN “it wasn’t particularly enlightening,” and “There are a lot of questions that need to be answered.”
With strikes against Iranian facilities appearing within Congress as a fierce flashpoint, with many Democrats suggesting they will not receive official warnings and justify each ammo. However, in a briefing room at the Capitol on Friday, three lawmakers explained the mood was professional and agreed, not exploding from either party.
The two Democrats in the room said they were surprised when they began their briefing with what Johnson characterized as a sharp “partisan” speech, which he described as being very unusual in such an environment. He said that part of the reason there were no fireworks was the limited amount of time lawmakers were able to ask questions. By the end of the briefing, those members said it was still waiting for around 12 lawmakers to line up waiting to ask their questions.
Several lawmakers said they received more clearly about key aspects of the strike. It is whether the intention of the US mission was to drive Iran out of nuclear material.
“The purpose of the mission was to eliminate certain specific aspects of the nuclear program. They were eliminated. Removing nuclear material was not part of the mission,” GOP MP Greg Murphy said.
Makol added that he agreed that “most” of uranium remains at Iran’s nuclear facility, but that was not the purpose of the recent strike.
“There’s a wealth of uranium in the moving facilities, but that wasn’t an intention or a mission,” McColl said. “We need full accounting. So Iran has to come directly with us to the table, so the IAEA can explain every ounce of rich uranium there. I don’t think it’s out of the country, I think it’s in the facility.”
Illinois Democratic Rep. Bill Foster, a former PhD physicist who spent 25 years in the National Laboratory, said he was disappointed that the administration did not say that it was “securing or destroying” Iran’s nuclear material.
He was “very disappointed,” he said, but the members weren’t spoken much about the situation in Iran’s nuclear stock.
“Frankly, I think there is a very overly optimal depiction of what has been achieved and what has been achieved through this issue, because we don’t understand and control where all of that material is,” Foster said.
Former Army ranger, Rep. Jason Crowe, has spoken in the past, raised questions about the inconsistency in information about “Iran’s capabilities and Iran’s intentions” that the House received at a briefing.
“What was explained to Congress today is very different from what was told to Congress last year, both Iran’s capabilities and Iran’s intentions a month ago,” Colorado Democrats said.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi criticized Friday’s classified briefing, adding that she later refused to approve the mission, saying, “I’m almost sorry,” she attended.
“I’ll say I’m sorry I went to this briefing because there are almost everything that was in the public domain,” Pelosi explained, disregarding the briefing. “A little more info.”
Pelosi also expressed skepticism about the extent of damage caused to Iran’s nuclear program after Trump’s claim that Iran’s nuclear site was “eliminate” by a strike.
“In the public domain, we know that rich uranium is still there, and that wasn’t part of our goal.
CNN’s Nikki Robertson and David Wright contributed to this report.