Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., blasted Secretary of State John Kerry for the nuclear deal brokered with Iran, asserting the United States’ top diplomat was “fleeced” by the Muslim nation.
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“I’m sorry to say this, but I believe you’ve been fleeced”, he told Mr Kerry in the first public debate between congress and the administration over the deal.
“The reality is that Iran now has in depth expertise with nuclear gasoline cycle know-how”, Kerry informed the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Kerry admitted the deal was not made from a place of mutual respect between Iran and the United States and that Iran’s history of noncompliance with past global agreements built the mistrust. They said that the Iran deal was the best way to prevent Iran from having a nuclear weapon.
Treasury Secretary Jack Lew and Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz – who testified in front of the senate committee – also defended the deal.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, told supporters on Saturday that US policies in the region were “180 degrees” opposed to Iran’s and his country would continue to back its allies in Arab states. “The agreement conveyed this message to the world: Never threaten an Iranian anymore”, he said in a speech broadcast live on television.
Those words are likely to haunt Kerry this week when he goes before Congress. This is not how others in the administration described the deal in April. “It’s pretty hard-nosed.” He’s seeking to persuade skeptical lawmakers that the deal is in the U.S. national security interest.
Cotton and Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kan., wrote a letter to Obama on Wednesday, complaining that the agreement includes two “side deals” the worldwide Atomic Energy Agency was negotiating separately with Iran – issues that the Congress has not been privy to.
Not all Democrats were under the impression that snap inspections were on the table. Sen. “Let me underscore, the alternative to the deal we’ve reached isn’t what we’re seeing ads for on TV”, Kerry told the committee. Pinning his authority to the fate of the agreement, Rouhani added that this new era had not begun when it was reached in Vienna on July 14 but rather on August 4, 2013, the day Iranian selected him to solve the nuclear dispute.
“The choice we face is between an agreement that will ensure Iran’s nuclear programme is limited, rigorously scrutinised and wholly peaceful – or no deal at all”. They outline an arrangement in which Iran will account for previous military uses of its nuclear program.
French President Francois Hollande has conferred with his Iranian counterpart, Hassan Rohani, and the two agreed to “step up bilateral cooperation”, Hollande’s office said.
Meanwhile, President Barack Obama’s spokesman, press secretary Josh Earnest, referred to a Washington demonstration against the Iran nuclear deal as a “pro-war rally”.
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Moniz also sought to parry Republican charges, including the claim that Kerry had failed to achieve a goal of assuring inspections “anywhere, anytime” to see if Iran is cheating on the deal.
