Senior US official criticizes American ‘hardliners’ opposing the deal with Iran

A senior US official knocks “hardliners” in the US who have criticized the agreement reached with Iran yesterday.

“One thing that I found to be the most comical is that you have a lot of people who are the hardliners [in the US] who say you can’t trust the Iranians — that they’re always going to lie. And then they take all the stuff put out in the IRGC channels as gospel,” the official says during a briefing with reporters on the Iran deal.

The US has argued that state-linked media in Iran has been falsely claiming that Iran will immediately receive sanctions relief as a result of the deal, while Washington insists that it will only allow the release of frozen assets if Iran follows through with concessions in the subsequent nuclear talks that will be held over the next two months.

“What you’re seeing now is hardliners on both sides. In the Iranian system, they’re protesting [against the deal]. And we have certain people in the American system who say there’s no deal you could ever do with Iran ever, who are obviously making a lot of noise,” the senior US official says.

“But all the details of the agreement have not been put out yet,” the official notes, adding that the text will likely be released in the next 24 to 48 hours.