Iran would not start disconnecting centrifuges, or getting rid of its uranium stockpile, or filling Arak (a nuclear reactor) with concrete – and they could very well restart their nuclear activities that have been frozen since 2013.
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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. During one line of questioning, Sen.
“Based on my reading [of the deal]”, Corker said, “I believe that you have crossed a new threshold in U.S. foreign policy”. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., responded instead, shaking his head and saying “no, no”.
His appearance was part of the Obama administration’s continued lobbying to build support for the deal.
More than that, he said, “he is the only president who has developed a weapon capable of guaranteeing that”. James E. Risch of Idaho.
In the wake of the Iran nuclear arms agreement, universally despised by nearly everyone outside the Obama administration, White House officials faced raging GOP members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Thursday. Republican members of the committee criticized the deal and said the administration had been “fleeced” and “bamboozled”. This nuclear agreement allows the Iranian regime to maintain much of its current nuclear infrastructure; to continue to advance its nuclear ambitions; and to facilitate its ability to promote terror across the world.
Here’s some video contrasting Secretary of State John Kerry during his Senate testimony today with – Secretary of State John Kerry.
“If the US Congress moves to unilaterally reject what was agreed to in Vienna, the result will be the United States of America walking away from every one of the restrictions that we have achieved”, Kerry said.
He says it is “unrealistic to think that additional sanctions pressure would force Iran to totally capitulate”. The United Nations Security Council also unanimously passed a resolution afterwards, endorsing the comprehensive accord.
Mr. Kerry met with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in Washington.
“The EU is ready to play its role to help and to facilitate the rebuilding of trust in the region”, Mogherini added. Lawmakers can’t stop the U.S. from implementing the agreement entirely.
Iran on Thursday outlined plans to rebuild its main industries and trade relationships following a nuclear agreement with world powers, saying it was targeting oil and gas projects worth $185 billion by 2020.
Moniz vouched for the deal as “based in science and analysis”.
Iran and six other countries – Britain, China, France, Russia, Germany and the United States reached the agreement last week. “This is a question of holding their program back”.
Kerry, who was joined at the hearing by Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, urged lawmakers to accept that the agreement came when Iran was already close to developing nuclear weapons.
On crutches from a cycling accident, Kerry entered the hearing room to cheers from the anti-war group Code Pink. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., asked Kerry a tough question – and Corker interjected an answer.
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On Wednesday, Kerry and the other cabinet officials offered a classified briefing to legislators, away from the media and the public.
