WASHINGTON — Secretary of State John Kerry told wary lawmakers on Tuesday that it was premature to criticize nuclear negotiations with Iran before a deal can be reached to keep Tehran from developing atomic weapons.
“The president has made clear — I can’t state this more firmly — the policy is Iran will not get a nuclear weapon,” Kerry told members of a Senate Appropriations subcommittee. “And anybody running around right now, jumping in to say, ‘Well, we don’t like the deal,’ or this or that, doesn’t know what the deal is. There is no deal yet. And I caution people to wait and see what these negotiations produce.”
Kerry testified in Congress 12 hours after returning to Washington from the latest round of talks in Geneva involving Iran, the U.S. and five other world powers. U.S. and Iranian officials reported progress on getting to a deal that would clamp down on Tehran’s nuclear activities for at least 10 years but then slowly ease restrictions.
Negotiators are rushing to try to meet a March 31 deadline for a framework agreement.
Republican and Democratic senators are skeptical that Iran is negotiating in good faith and accuse Tehran of buying time and meddling throughout the Mideast. Still, a comprehensive pact could ease 35 years of U.S-Iranian enmity — and seems within reach for the first time in more than a decade of negotiations.
When asked if Syrian President Bashar Assad was a “puppet” of the Iranian regime, Kerry replied, “Pretty much.” Asked if Hezbollah, an Islamic militant group based in Lebanon, was a subcontractor of the Iranian regime, Kerry answered, “Totally.”
