Former Secretary of State Colin Powell said Sunday that the Iran deal is “pretty good” and that it is “remarkable” Iran’s leaders have scaled back their nuclear operations as the deal requires.
The reduction in centrifuges, Iran’s uranium stockpile and the agreement to shut down Iran’s plutonium reactor are all “remarkable” concessions, Powell said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Critics who charge that the deal leaves “a lane open” for Iran to build a weapon need to remember that Iran has been “on a superhighway” to nuclear weapons for the last 10 years “with no speed limit,” Powell pointed out.
“These are remarkable changes [that Iran has made] and so we have stopped this highway race that they were going down — and I think that’s very, very important,” Powell said.
Powell added that President Reagan’s maxim of “trust but verify” was key to the success of the deal.
“With respect to the Iranians — don’t trust, never trust, and always verify,” said Powell. “And I think a very vigorous verification regime has been put into place.”
“I say, we have a deal, let’s see how they implement the deal. If they don’t implement it, bail out. None of our options are gone,” said Powell.
The Democrats gained enough votes for the deal Wednesday that it will survive efforts to kill it.
The Obama administration negotiated the deal directly with Iran and the P5+1 countries of China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and Germany. If the United States does not pass the deal, Powell said, the other countries will not put the economic sanctions that brought Iran to the table back in place.
“Even if we were to kill the deal — which is not going to happen — it’s going to take effect anyway, because all of these other countries that were in it with us are going to move forward,” he said, adding that if we do not pass the deal “we’re going to be sitting on the sidelines.”
