U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Thursday that the 70th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing highlights the importance of the nuclear deal negotiated between Iran and six world powers.
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Kerry: Look, I’ve gone through this backwards and forwards a hundred times and I’m telling you, this deal is as pro-Israel, as pro-Israel’s security, as it gets.
With the ultimate fate of Barack Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran hanging in the balance, radio host Rush Limbaugh is suggesting four Americans held in the Islamic Republic will be released as part of a secret agreement.
The founder of stopimperialism.com told Press TV on Tuesday that Schumer’s proximity to “some of the powerful lobbies and interests” including Israeli ones in New York and Washington makes it unlikely for him to vote in favor of a nuclear conclusion with Iran.
“The United States Congress will prove the ayatollah’s suspicion, and there’s no way he’s ever coming back”. This delicate matter has been near the top of the United States’ foreign policy agenda for more than a decade, most recently with the implementation of crippling worldwide sanctions in 2013 that ultimately brought Iran to the negotiating table. “Suddenly, Iran realizes, you know what, maybe we can get additional concessions out of the Americans by holding these individuals…” America is not going to negotiate in good faith.
Kerry also commented on the vociferous opposition to the deal expressed by Israel, which the secretary referred to as “visceral” and “emotional”. If the deal doesn’t fly past Congress, as Kerry said last week, Israel will be to blame. And I believe that just saying no to this is, in fact, reckless.
The Obama administration has offered regional powers enhanced security cooperation as it seeks to assuage anxieties in the wake of the deal, which Israel and some of its neighbors see as enhancing Iran’s influence and mischief making in the Middle East. “They’ve got 80,000 rockets in Hezbollah pointed at Israel, and any number of choices could have been made”. They didn’t make the bomb when they had enough material for 10 to 12.
“Today my counterparts and I have discussed the steps that we will take and how we intend to build an even stronger, more enduring and more strategic partnership with particular focus on our cooperative counterterrorism, counterinsurgency, and also on our cooperation in countering the destabilizing activities taking place in the region“, he said.
“Let me underscore: the alternative to the deal that we have reached is not some kind of unicorn fantasy that contemplates Iran’s complete capitulation”, Kerry warned before the house foreign affairs committee. I think it’s a waste of time here.
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Among other things, the deal eventually requires lifting US and world economic sanctions and unfreezing the $100 billion of Iran’s assets in return for Tehran shutting down its nuclear weapons program.
