The United States' deal with Iran was the best agreement that could be reached, Secretary of State John Kerry said Friday, insisting that the agreement was "not based on trust" with the Middle Eastern country.
"There is no trust — no, no, no," Kerry told
NBC's "Today" show host Matt Lauer. "That's what's important to understand. Everything in this agreement is verifiable. It is a process by which we will know what they're doing."
Kerry also defended the deal's provision that will allow Iran up to 24 days before inspectors will be allowed to access suspicious sites, a part of the agreement that has critics on both sides of the congressional aisle worried.
"This is nuclear material. It radiates ... This is not something that you can flush down the toilet. It's not possible," he told Lauer, adding that the United States did not have a better option that the deal the P5+1 countries — the United States, China, France, England, Russia and Germany — reached with Iran.
Kerry's appearance came one day after he attended hearings on Capitol Hill, where he met with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and defended the deal, telling lawmakers that there was no "unicorn" or "fantasy" options that would have offered a better deal.
Congress has until Sept. 17 to vote on the deal, and President Barack Obama has vowed to veto any legislation that stops the agreement from going ahead.
"The truth is that the Vienna plan will provide a stronger, more comprehensive, more lasting means of limiting Iran's nuclear program than any alternative that has been spoken of,"
Kerry told lawmakers Thursday, including Republicans who are highly skeptical of the deal.
"I believe you've been fleeced," said Committee Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., told Kerry, arguing that the agreement will allow Iran "a perfectly aligned pathway" toward becoming a nuclear power in due time.
"With all due respect, you guys have been bamboozled and the American people are going to pay for that," echoed fellow Sen. James Risch, R-Idaho. "Anybody who believes this is a good deal really joins the ranks of the most naive people on the face of the Earth."
On Friday, Kerry told Lauer that the alternative would be to allow Iran to continue with no inspections and "not knowing what Iran is doing, go back to where they are today with the ability to make the bomb. And then you're going to hear everybody say, 'Uh oh, we've got to go bomb them now.'"
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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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