The nuclear deal that's been reached with Iran means the Middle Eastern nation will "never get a nuclear weapon," Ambassador Wendy Sherman, the lead U.S. nuclear negotiator in the talks with that country said Monday, but admitted that there are still many concerns with Iran that remain.
"What this means is we have a channel for dialogue and sustained way to have communications with Iran," the former undersecretary of state for political affairs told
MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program.
"I don't expect the IRGC [Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps] to stop what it's doing tomorrow. We've got to have eyes on their activities that aren't helping to bring peace and security to the world even while we look for those roads, those passes, those avenues where we can find common cause."
But still, she insisted that the nuclear agreement will keep Iran from getting nuclear weapons by "shutting the pathways to fissile material, the matter you need to create the fuel for a nuclear weapon."
And if Iran does not continue to comply with the agreement Sherman said, there are mechanisms involved in the agreement that will allow the U.S. and other partner nations to return sanctions and other options against Iran.
Richard Haass, the president of the Council on Foreign Relations, told Sherman he does not understand her use of the word "never," as "you know as well as anyone the limits on centrifuges and enriched uranium expire after 10-15 years."
"I said it ensures it because if Iran doesn't comply and starts to cheat off the deal then we have all our options at our disposal," said Sherman, noting that even though the number of centrifuges, research and development progress can be made after that period of time, "all of the uranium development will be watched from the time it comes out of the ground to the time it's made into any kind of material whatsoever.
"And Iran has been signed up for the additional protocol, which means that the International Atomic Energy Agency can inspect any site where they have concerns that Iran is doing something it shouldn't."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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