CNBC's Squawk Box panel and former Obama administration official Bob Hormats questioned the verification regime of the Iran nuclear deal Monday, with co-host Andrew Ross Sorkin calling the monitoring program "a whole lot of bunk."
"Anywhere, anytime," co-host Joe Kernen said sarcastically. "That's what [Obama] told me. I can keep my health care plan, too."
"That's my biggest worry, that we will not be able to monitor," Hormats said. "That's my concern is the monitoring process, the access process."
Hormats is the current vice chairman of Kissinger Associates and served as undersecretary of state for economic growth, energy, and the environment from 2009 to 2013.
While Secretary of State John Kerry and other White House officials have claimed that "anytime, anywhere" inspections were never part of negotiations, critics have pointed out that the 24-day period Iran has to stave off inspections does not mesh with President Obama's promise that the world would know if Iran cheated on its obligations.
Kernen criticized the deal for not stipulating that Iran change its behavior in any way, particularly with regard to the fact it remains the world's foremost sponsor of terrorism. Sorkin also criticized the Obama administration's misleading statements on Iran's breakout time to increase urgency for a deal, repeatedly claiming it was a year away when it knew Iran was actually only a couple months from a bomb.
"For years, the Obama administration said that they weren't there, that it wasn't going to happen," Sorkin said. "Now all the sudden, they've said oh my goodness, in two months, if we don't do this, they're going to have it."
Sorkin and Hormats also voiced concerns about the $150 billion in sanctions relief Iran can use for whatever purposes it sees fit, which includes such destabilizing activities as funding the terrorist organizations Hamas and Hezbollah.
"But they're going to have $150 billion more that they can use to fund terrorists!" Sorkin said.
"What they have now done is to strengthen their role as a regional power, because they'll have more money to utilize for all the things they're doing in the region, and the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has said they're not going to give up on that," Hormats said.