Iran deal ‘as pro-Israel as it gets,’ insists Kerry

In an interview with The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg, US Secretary of State John Kerry defends the nuclear accord between world powers and Iran, suggests it could help stabilize the Middle East and insists it helps bolster Israel’s security.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif “specifically said to me in the last two weeks, ‘If we get this finished, I am now empowered to work with and talk to you about regional issues,’” Kerry tells Goldberg.

A Congressional dismantling of the US role in the deal “will shut that down, shut off that conversation, set this back, and set in motion a series of inevitables about what would happen with respect to Iranian behavior, and, by the way, the sanctions will be over.”

Asked about Israeli fears and rejection of the accord, Kerry says: “I’ve gone through this backwards and forwards a hundred times and I’m telling you, this deal is as pro-Israel, as pro-Israel’s security, as it gets. And I believe that just saying no to this is, in fact, reckless.”

Asked if the Iranians seek to destroy Israel, Kerry acknowledges “they have a fundamental ideological confrontation with Israel at this particular moment. Whether or not that translates into active steps to, quote, ‘wipe it [off the map],’ quote…. I don’t know the answer to that. I haven’t seen anything that says to me—they’ve got 80,000 rockets in Hezbollah pointed at Israel, and any number of choices could have been made. They didn’t make the bomb when they had enough material for 10 to 12. They’ve signed on to an agreement where they say they’ll never try and make one and we have a mechanism in place where we can prove that. So I don’t want to get locked into that debate. I think it’s a waste of time here.”