Tehran, Aug 1, IRNA - US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said Friday the Iranian nuclear deal will go forward, and he disagreed with President Obama�s view that Democratic lawmakers are getting �squishy� on the accord.

He made the remark in a White House briefing on Friday, IRNA reported.

�Squishy? I wouldn�t use that term,� Mr. Moniz told reporters at the White House. �I remain confident that this agreement will go into effect.�

He added, �Unless there are too many closed minds.�

Moniz said he is �very frankly pleased at how many members are digging into the documents, both the public and confidential documents that we have supplied.�

He also reiterated his view that there is no �secret� deal between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Association, which will conduct inspections of Iranian nuclear sites to enforce compliance.

Administration officials acknowledge there is an agreement between the IAEA and Iran on inspections, and that the U.S. doesn�t have a copy of it, but they say it�s standard practice for such monitoring.

�There is no secret side deal,� Mr. Moniz said.

Moniz has testified before both House and Senate panels three times this week defending and answering lawmakers, at times heated, questions over the Iran agreement.

'There is no secret side deal,' Moniz told reporters on Friday at the White House. The actual deal sent to Congress for review forces Iran to allow the IAEA to go about its work unfettered, he said. It also requires Iran to commit to granting the international agency all the access requested in the protocols by Oct. 15. Such documents are confidential to help maintain the IAEA's independence, Moniz said.

Moniz cited the cooperation between the IAEA and South Africa to dismantle its nuclear program 25 years ago as an example.

'Those documents all remain confidential; that's the standard,' Moniz said.

The agency's leader, Yukiya Amano, has agreed to come to Washington and walk administration officials and lawmakers through the protocols, Moniz said.

'The IAEA is an extremely competent organization' that can verify that states that have no diplomatic relations with the U.S., such as Iran, are honoring their commitments, Moniz said. The body is trustworthy 'partly because, at a place like Los Alamos National Laboratory, we have courses that all of the IAEA inspectors take, for example.'

'What we have done is give them the tools they need to apply these talents and, I might say, to expand their scope relative to other countries as well, hopefully,' he added.

Talking to the press from the White House briefing room 'is not part of my job description, but obviously it was a � I think, a fortuitous set of circumstances in the sense that this is an area in which I do have a lot of experience,' said Moniz.

By IRNA