WASHINGTON – Secretary of State John Kerry pushed back Sunday at charges the White House is being duped in nuke talks with Iran, insisting that “no deal is better than a bad deal.”
“President Obama has been crystal clear: Don’t rush.…We need to get the right deal. No deal is better than a bad deal. And we are certainly adhering to that concept,” Kerry said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Kerry defended the US negotiating strategy shortly after intense talks with Iran collapsed early Sunday without an agreement.
The historic talks with Iran in Geneva included the US and four other United Nations Security Council members, known as the P5.
The effort fell apart amid criticism, especially from Israel and P5 member France, that the pending deal would have eased economic sanctions on Iran but done nothing to stop it from enriching uranium for nuclear weapons.
“Iran gives practically nothing and it gets a hell of a lot,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
“That’s not a good deal,” he said. “I’m expressing … not only the concerns of Israel but the concerns of many in the region. Some of them say it aloud, some say it behind closed doors, but I’ll tell you this is the broad feeling here that Iran might hit the jackpot here.
“And it’s not good. It’s not good for us, it’s not good for America, it’s not good for the Middle East, it’s not good for Europe either,” Netanyahu said.
The negotiations are set to resume Nov. 20.
The administration has characterized the proposed agreement as a first step toward getting more concessions from Iran.
“The president believes, as I do, that the pressure exists today, which is why they’re willing to negotiate,” Kerry said. “Now that they’re there, you have to act in some good faith, in an effort to be able to move towards the goal you want to achieve.”
Kerry said that Obama continued to back up the US negotiation stance with the threat of a military strike if necessary to stop Iran from getting nukes.
“The president has been willing and made it clear that he is prepared to use force with respect to Iran’s weapon, and he has deployed the forces and the weapons necessary to achieve that goal if it has to be achieved,” he said.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), an outspoken critic of Obama’s foreign policy, said that the proposed Iran deal is the worst yet.
“I’ve never been more worried about the Obama administration’s approach to the Middle East than I am now,” he said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Graham said that any deal that did not force Iran to stop uranium enrichment and opening up for nuclear inspectors would create “a North Korea kind of situation in the Middle East.”