Kerry mounts furious counterattack against Iran deal critics

PanARMENIAN.Net - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday, July 23, mounted a furious counterattack against critics of the Iran nuclear deal, telling skeptical lawmakers it would be fantasy to think the United States could simply "bomb away" Tehran's atomic know-how, Reuters reports.

Testifying publicly before Congress for the first time since world powers reached the landmark accord with Iran last week, America's top diplomat was confronted head-on by Republican accusations that Iranian negotiators had "fleeced" and "bamboozled" him.

The vitriolic exchanges at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which Kerry once chaired, reflected a hardening of positions as Congress opened a 60-day review of the deal considered crucial to its fate.

Iranian hardliners are also trying to undermine the pact, which U.S. ally Israel calls a dire security threat.

Kerry insisted critics of the agreement, which curbs Iran’s nuclear program in return for sanctions relief, are pushing an alternative he dismissed as a "sort of unicorn arrangement involving Iran's complete capitulation."

"The fact is that Iran now has extensive experience with nuclear fuel cycle technology," the former senator said. "We can't bomb that knowledge away. Nor can we sanction that knowledge away."

Kerry said that if Congress rejects the accord, "the result will be the United States of America walking away from every one of the restrictions we have achieved, and a great big green light for Iran to double the pace of its uranium enrichment."

"We will have squandered the best chance we have to solve this problem through peaceful means," he said.

Seeking to reassure Israel and its U.S. supporters, Kerry said Washington would increase security coordination. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has expressed concerns that Iran will use unfrozen assets to increase funding and weapons to militant groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah.

Kerry said the Iran deal carried the "real potential" for change in the Middle East but acknowledged it "does not end the possibility of a confrontation with Iran."