This was not the impression the Obama administration left in April, after the White House announced it had the framework for a deal with Iran.
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“They (Iran) already have what they want”. “It isn’t a better deal, some sort of unicorn arrangement involving Iran’s complete capitulation”, Kerry said.
“If this deal is rejected, we return immediately to this reality, except that the diplomatic support that we have built with all these other countries, that we have accumulated, would disappear overnight”, he said.
Senator Marco Rubio faulted President Barack Obama for rewarding Iran for “its atrocious human rights document”.
Seeking to reassure Israel and its D.R. supporters, Kerry stated Washington would improve safety coordination. During one line of questioning, Sen.
A few restrictions will be placed on Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for the removal of sanctions against the Islamic Republic. “Secretary Kerry, I do not fault you for trying to engage in diplomacy and striking a deal with Iran, I don’t”.
Last week, Wendy Sherman, the undersecretary of state for political affairs, dismissed past talk of “anytime, anywhere” access as a “rhetorical flourish”.
Bob Corker, R-Tennessee, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said: “I could have sworn that he had said that, but I know it’s been a topic of discussion for a long, long time”.
Kerry said that when the negotiations began, experts calculated that it would take Iran only two to three months to produce enough material for a bomb, the so-called breakout time.
But critics, led by committee chairman Sen.
“Anybody who believes this is a good deal really joins the ranks of the most naive people on the face of the Earth”, Risch said.
There were scattered Democratic concerns, as well, after classified briefings from Secretary of State John Kerry and other administration officials, although it was unclear how widespread the opposition was in Obama’s own party.
Kerry hit back, noting it was “fantasy, plain and simple” to believe the U.S. could hold out for a stronger deal against the Iranians. In a statement, McConnell said all the Senators had planned to meet and study the agreement in-depth to prepare for the first hearing on the pact between the G5 + 1 and Iran.
But Kerry, peering wearily over a pair of wire-rim glasses, encountered a tsunami of skepticism from Republicans on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, during a marathon four-and-a-half-hour hearing.
Conservative members of parliament and Revolutionary Guards commanders say the deal has breached conditions set by Khamenei, and want changes.
Iranians reacted to the deal by pouring on the streets to celebrate what many hope will now be a future without crippling economic sanctions.
According to the text of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Iran will be recognized by the United Nations as a nuclear power and will continue its uranium enrichment program.
He says, “The deal is based on science and analysis”.
Public opinion polls have suggested that of the 79 percent of Americans surveyed who heard about the Vienna deal, 48 percent disapprove. “This is a question of holding their program back”.
Kerry was greeted with applause from anti-war demonstrators as a handful of members from CodePink rose in the hearing room. Vote counters are eyeing Democrats, especially those who represent large Jewish constituencies and likely will be lobbied hard to oppose the deal at home during the August recess.
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“We’re very much looking forward to any and every question” lawmakers have, Kerry told reporters.
