Posted on 12/02/2017 11:59:48 AM PST by Eddie01
(AhlulBayt News Agency) - US Former Secretary of State John Kerry said Israel, Saudi Arabia and Egypt pushed the United States to bomb Iran before the 2015 nuclear deal was struck. Kerry defended the deal during the Ignatius Forum in Washington, saying Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was genuinely agitating towards action, before he struck the accord with Tehran.
Kerry said when he was chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he met with Saudi King Abdullah, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Netanyahu, who all lobbied for military action.
"Each of them said to me, you have to bomb Iran, it's the only thing they are going to understand," he said.
But Kerry said that was a trap since the Arab countries would have publicly criticized the US if it bombed Iran.
It was not clear when the conversations took place. Kerry chaired the Senate panel from 2009 to early 2013. Mubarak was deposed in February 2011.
Kerry, one of the main architects of the deal, said he doesn't know whether Iran will resume pursuing a nuclear weapon in 10 to 15 years after restrictions in the deal sunset. But he said it was the best deal the US could get and made the Middle East safer as well as heading off a nuclear arms race in the region.
"Without exaggeration, the likelihood is very high that we would have been in a conflict," without deal, he said.
He criticized US President Donald Trump for telling Congress to try to fix the agreement, and said he had polluted the water of legitimate diplomacy by vocally criticizing the deal while campaigning.
"That was a blatant over-simplistic political appeal to the American Jewish community ... because most of those people hadn't read the agreement," he said.
He added that UN restrictions on missile development were snuck in by US ambassador Samantha Power and were only included because nobody noticed.
That wa big back in the 70’s when carter was president.
Looks like Kerry’s brain is stuck in nuance mode - nothing he says makes sense.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.