In an appearance on “The Hugh Hewitt Show” Thursday, Arizona Sen. John McCain took aim at Secretary of State John Kerry after Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said there is no deal between the U.S. and Iran unless sanctions go away on day one.
During the interview, McCain called Kerry “delusional” while adding that Iran probably never agreed to things Kerry claims the U.S. did during negotiations of a framework deal, which was struck last week in Switzerland.
HEWITT: Well now, let’s turn to the Iran deal. Today, the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, said that the deal is no deal unless sanctions come off on day one, the same day Iran’s defense minister, Brigadier General Hossein Dehqhan said, “visits to our military centers is among our red lines.” Now I just think the hashtag #dontgoback is, I wouldn’t go back to the negotiating table. They just killed the deal, Sen. McCain.
McCAIN: You know, they, in a way, you’ve got to give them a little sympathy in this respect, in that John Kerry must have known what was in it, and yet chose to interpret it in another way. It’s probably in black and white that the ayatollah is probably right. John Kerry is delusional. And he came back, and in my view, I think you’re going to find out that they had never agreed to the things that John Kerry claimed that they had. So in a way, I can’t blame the ayatollah, because I don’t think they ever agreed to it, and I think John Kerry tried to come back and sell a bill of goods, hoping maybe that the Iranians wouldn’t say much about it.
But look, it’s delusional, and the worst thing about it, as we have talked before, Hugh, is that they believe that with this deal, somehow there’s going to be a new alignment in the whole Middle East, and we’re going to be partners with the Iranians. Well, you can imagine the reaction of the Sunni Arabs to it. When we had a hearing with General Lloyd Austin, who is the head of Central Command that has responsibility there, I asked him in the hearing. When the Saudis started the bombing of Yemen, as you recall some days ago, and I asked him, when did the Saudis tell you that they were going to bomb Yemen? He told me one hour before. Now they have lost all confidence in the United States. They see this cozying up to the Iranians, and they are having to go their own way. And part of going their own way, by the way, is having their own nuclear capability. And the consequences of that long term are really very, very dangerous.
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