Secretary of State John Kerry argued that if the Senate does not approve the Iranian nuclear deal, the Islamic republic “will get a weapon one way or the other as a result of not accepting this agreement.”
Kerry, appearing on “Morning Joe” Wednesday, stated that if the United States backs away from the deal, it will confirm the Iranian fears that “you can’t deal with the West” and that you “can’t trust the West.” (RELATED: Cheney: Obama’s White House Doesn’t Listen To The Military)
Mike Barnicle: How quickly would the Iranians get a nuclear weapon, get to a nuclear weapon without an agreement, and how quickly would money flow into Iran without an agreement?
John Kerry: Well, without an agreement, Mike, money will flow immediately. There are countries chomping at the bit obviously to do business. By the way, that’s another misstatement by the opponents. I heard Liz Cheney say that hundreds of billions of dollars would flow. That is not accurate. There is a maximum of about $55 billion, and it’s not our money, it’s their money, and we don’t hold it in American banks. That is why the money will begin to flow, and countries will begin to do business and the sanctions will fall apart because people will look at this agreement and say, “Wait a minute, the United States has been enforcing the sanctions, but they’re ones who walked away from the agreement so why should we live by the sanctions?” I can’t tell you exactly how many months it would be before Iran — it depends on how many centrifuges spin and whether they decide to dig deep near a mountain, hide their program more, try to avoid consequences. It could take them a little longer under those circumstances. What I can tell you is, if we walk away from this agreement given the suspicions that the Supreme Leader had about even entering into negotiations with us, we will have proven their worst fears. That you can’t deal with the West. You can’t trust the West. Therefore, they have to go do what they have to do to protect themselves. And they will get a weapon one way or the other as a result of not accepting this agreement.
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