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LONDON: Former US Secretary of State John Kerry said the Iran nuclear deal “is working” and that the world risks becoming a “less safe” place if the US lets it fall apart after President Donald Trump’s decision last month to not re-certify the agreement.
“It is important to note the simple things. The Iran nuclear agreement is working. It is doing precisely what it is set up to do,” he said on Monday in London.
Kerry was the key US representative alongside diplomats from the UK, France, Russia, Germany and China in the negotiations that led up to the Iran deal, or the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), signed in 2015. The deal placed limits on Iran’s nuclear program in return for the easing of economic sanctions on the country.
The decision on the agreement’s future now rests with the US Congress, which has 60 days from Oct. 15, to decide whether to uphold the deal as it stands or demand amendments to it.
Kerry warned an audience at Chatham House that if congress does not re-certify the deal, the US could lose its credibility internationally; Iran may potentially return to its nuclear enrichment program and it could result in Arab countries in the region embarking on an arms race.
“As a child of the Cold War,” he said, “it is really sad for me to see our country and our president putting this issue in such peril.”
Trump has frequently referred to the Iran deal as the “worst deal” he’s ever seen, arguing that the ability to monitor and inspect whether Iran was keeping to the terms of the deal was “weak”. He has been critical of “sunset clauses” that expire after a certain time period which he said would allow Iran to eventually develop its own nuclear weapons.
“We got weak inspections in exchange for no more than a purely short-term and temporary delay in Iran’s path to nuclear weapons,” he said in a statement on Oct. 13.
Kerry said Trump’s stance is not based on any evidence at all, saying the IAEA has asserted that Iran is compliant with the terms of the deal. “The decision to de-certify was made without relevance to any fact whatsoever in respect to this agreement,” he said.
“There is no evidence that merits de-certification,” he said, adding “it is beyond me” how congress — which was not part of the original negotiations — is now being called upon to “fix” the deal.
Kerry has previously referred to Trump’s decision as “dangerous”, accusing him of creating an “international crisis”, in a statement on Twitter last month.
While answering audience questions, Kerry also criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-line opposition to the Iran deal, saying that the Israeli leader had previously urged Barack Obama during his presidency to bomb Iran.
“Bombing Iran doesn’t necessarily stop Iran having a nuclear bomb,” he said, adding that such a move would only give Iran a reason for wanting a weapon to defend themselves.
“What is this rush for war? It doesn’t make sense,” Kerry said.
Netanyahu shifted his stance last week during his visit to the UK, calling for “flaws” in the deal to be fixed, rather than demanding the outright cancelation of the agreement.
Kerry said that the nuclear deal does not mean the international community is ignoring the “serious problems” it has with some of Iran’s policies, such as its interference in Yemen; its human rights track record or the country’s attempts to import equipment for its rock and missile development.
“It is better to deal with a country that doesn’t have a nuclear weapon, than if it does. It’s a simple proposition,” Kerry said.
“You are better off with it (the deal) than without it. We are moving in the right direction and we have to keep moving in the right direction.”