A confident Secretary of State John Kerry laughed at the idea that Iran might not be a good faith actor in the nuclear deal negotiations and predicted that “90 percent” of Americans will get behind the Iran nuclear deal after it passes.
In an interview with the Huffington Post, Kerry said that he does not believe a future president will willfully take on the United Nations and the five other nations who participated in negotiating it.
“I just don’t see that happening,” Kerry told Sam Stein Thursday, calling GOP candidates’ plans to shred the deal “absurd.”
Democrats secured enough votes this week in Congress to ensure that the deal will survive efforts to kill it.
Republicans claim the deal, which the Obama administration negotiated directly with Iran and the P5+1 nations of China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and Germany, is “very dangerous” and will have no weight under a new president. The deal will roll back sanctions against Iran in exchange for a reduction in its nuclear capacity.
Despite polls showing that the majority of Americans oppose the deal, Kerry said in time, “the country will be 90 percent supportive” of the deal because “they will see that it is in fact working, and it has eliminated the threat of a nuclear weapon in the Middle East.”
Critics of the deal point to Iran’s current sponsorship of terrorism throughout the Middle East, and its holding of American hostages, as proof that the Islamic Republic is not negotiating in good faith. When asked to respond to this criticism, Kerry laughed.
“The idea here is that they might not be good-faith actors,” said Stein. “That they may take the opportunity of the U.S. clamping down on terrorism funding and say, ‘You know what? They’re going out —'”
“That’s their problem,” interjected Kerry. “If they were to do that, it’s their problem, because we will hold them accountable to this agreement, and if they break it or in any way give us pause to think that they are pursuing a nuclear weapon, we have every option available to us then that we have today.”
Republicans have repeatedly asserted that putting the economic sanctions back in place would be virtually impossible after the deal, since it would require the cooperation of the P5+1 nations.
One criticism that Kerry admitted is a concern is if Iran “pushes back or refuses to do something.”
“In which case, the Iranian government is going to have to answer for that,” said Kerry. “So I can see the potential that you may have a hiccup here or there where you’ve got to confront something like that, but I don’t see the government, at this point, opening itself up to the potential of a snapback of all of these sanctions, and the potential obviously also of military action — if that was the only option available.”
To secure the needed votes in Congress, the Obama administration has promised more weapons for Israel and the Gulf states.
When challenged on how introducing more weapons into the region would help stabilize it, Kerry responded that “they are defensive weapons.”
He claimed that Israel will work with the Arab countries, with whom they have a “common cause … against this kind of Iranian activity.”
“That would be a unique common cause,” said Stein.
“It will indeed be unique, but I think that’s very much in the air right now,” said Kerry, who pointed to Egypt and Jordan’s cooperation with Israel on the Sinai and the spread of radical jihadism throughout the region.
When Stein asserted that “it sounds like there is a trade-off being made here: We’re risking the possibility of smaller regional conflict to diminish the likelihood of larger cataclysmic conflict,” Kerry pushed back hard.
“I don’t see it that way at all,” Kerry said, claiming that the deal will allow Iran to “join the community of nations and be a nation in good standing.”
“But if, on the other hand, Iran wants to continue with its current procedures, we are going to be united in our efforts to not allow that destabilization and to stand up to those kinds of activities,” said Kerry.
Kerry claimed that the “regional issues” he will be “empowered to work with” Iranian Prime Minister Zarif on concern primarily Syria. Syria’s five year civil war has propelled the world’s worst refugee crisis since World War II.
“Iran hates ISIL, and so do we,” said Kerry. The Islamic State extremists, also known by the acronym ISIS or ISIL, are an extremist sect of Sunni Muslims who have taken over a large swath of territory in Syria and Iraq.
In Iran, the Shia sect of Islam is dominant, and Iran-backed Shia militias in Iraq, Lebanon and Syria have played a major role in the destabilization within those countries.
Throughout the interview, Kerry touted Iran’s good faith negotiations, but admitted that Iran’s funding of the terrorist organization Hezbollah is “deeply disturbing” and “contrary to the embargo.”
