Joined by U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, Kerry forcefully argued that congressional approval of the agreement would allow the United States and the worldwide community to quickly detect Iranian violations in trying to secretly build a nuclear bomb.
Advertisement
Kerry’s warning came during his impassioned defense of the nuclear agreement between Tehran and six world powers reached last month.
He says the dollar would lose its status as the world’s reserve currency, and allies wouldn’t support U.S. military action against Iran if Congress was responsible for breaking the deal.
US opponents to the Iran deal are “kidding” themselves if they think Washington can act unilaterally to impose “fraying” sanctions, Kerry said.
“It gets the job done”, Kerry said. “The funds that would be released as part of the nuclear deal are primarily from Iran’s oil sales that have been deposited into restricted accounts, Pooja Jhunjhunwala said in a statement”.
Now that the pact has been finalized, Kerry said such a heavy-handed approach was an option no longer.
“You can squabble maybe with the choice of words”, Kerry said, when asked about Obama’s comments. “The United States is going to start sanctioning our allies and their banks and their businesses because we walked away from a deal?” “Everything in this deal is based on verification and certainty that we will know what they are doing”, adding, “we will know if they try to break out”.
He says European countries wouldn’t cooperate with U.S. sanctions, and would walk away from separate U.S.-led penalties against Russian Federation.
“We will have left Iran free to go do its program, without restraints, without inspections, without knocking down its stockpile, without knowing what they’re doing”, he said.
In terms of the argument for a better deal, Kerry noted that while Iranian leaders issued a fatwah in 2003 that a nuclear weapon should not be pursued, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) still wants one and has fought against the deal. The suit maintains that the U.S. should not lift Iranian sanctions relief until the judgments are satisfied.
But the Republicans don’t appear to have enough votes against the nuclear deal to override a veto that U.S. President Barack Obama has vowed to wield should lawmakers vote against the accord.
Advertisement
“We have that powerful tool, and if used, I think that’s a better, better chance in a very hard world than an agreement that is so totally flawed”, Schumer said.
