Kerry urges Congress to avoid 'gigantic mistake' on Iran deal

Former Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday warned the US Congress that it would be "extraordinarily dangerous" for it to reject the Iran nuclear deal that he helped broker.

President Donald Trump last month decertified Iran's compliance with the 2015 agreement, but stopped short of scrapping the deal outright, instead handing the issue over to Congress.

Kerry told the Chatham House international affairs think tank in London that the decision "was clearly made without relevance to any fact whatsoever" and criticised the involvement of Congress.

"It's been flipped over to the Congress with instructions, you guys fix it.

"How the US Congress, which wasn't part of the negotiations, which isn't certified to be part of the negotiations, fixes an agreement which is working is beyond me," he added.

"What President Trump regrettably has done by his invective against the deal, he's polluted the pool in a way that whatever Congress does is going to be interpreted as their effort to kill the deal through the back door."

Congress was given 60 days to decide whether to reimpose sanctions that were lifted in return for Tehran abandoning its nuclear ambitions.

Kerry said there was a "great danger" that Congress could act unilaterally to alter the deal, narrowing Iran's room for manoeuvre and "creating a downward spiral that becomes extraordinarily dangerous."

"It would be a gigantic, historic mistake when dealing with nuclear weapons to allow anyone's politics to get in the way and break apart an agreement that is preventing a country from pursuing a nuclear weapon," he added.

Opponents of the deal claim that it does not go far enough to prevent Tehran from getting a nuclear weapon, and point to Iran's recent missile launches.

jwp/dt/ser

KERRY GROUP

Iran threat forcing Mideast-Israel alliances: Netanyahu
London (AFP) Nov 3, 2017
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday that the threat posed by Iran to its Middle Eastern neighbours was driving them into hitherto unthinkable alliances with the Jewish state. "Iran is devouring one nation after the other," Netanyahu said at Chatham House, the Royal Institute of International Affairs think-tank in London. "It is doing so either by direct conquest or by u ... read more

Related Links
Learn about nuclear weapons doctrine and defense at SpaceWar.com
Learn about missile defense at SpaceWar.com
All about missiles at SpaceWar.com
Learn about the Superpowers of the 21st Century at SpaceWar.com

Thanks for being there;
We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain.

With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords.

Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year.

If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.

SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter
$5+ Billed Monthly

SpaceDaily Contributor
$5 Billed Once

credit card or paypal