In an interview, the secretary denounced ‘dumbest’ accusation he and Obama relented on key demands because they were too eager to reach a historic deal

The US secretary of state, John Kerry, has used an unusually emotional interview to reveal he walked away from nuclear talks with Iran on three separate occasions, insisting that the claim that he was too eager to seal a deal was “one of the dumbest criticisms I’ve ever heard in my life”.

“Let me tell you what a complete and total fallacy that criticism is,” Kerry told National Public Radio in an interview broadcast on Tuesday. “It’s totally made up by people who somehow want to find a way to criticise the agreement. Because the fact is that I walked away three times.”

Kerry is leading a major push from Barack Obama’s administration to promote the nuclear agreement in Washington, where a rebellious Congress, dominated by Republicans and backed by Israel, is seeking to unravel the accord.

Why Republican promises to scrap Iran nuclear deal may not be met Read more

Congressional critics of the Iran deal will need to muster a two-thirds majority of both chambers to kill the agreement, which involves the lifting of international sanctions against Iran once its nuclear program is partly dismantled, mothballed, and subject to stringent and lasting curbs.

Meanwhile, Iran’s parliament will need “at least 60 days” to review the deal, an Iranian lawmaker told the Associated Press, which would give the Islamic Republic roughly the same time as the US Congress to review the proposed deal.

In his interview, which was taped late on Monday after a visibly weary Kerry had spent the day with Cuba’s foreign minister, the secretary pushed back hard against the accusation he and Obama relented on key demands because they were too keen to reach a historic agreement.



He said that he told his counterpart, the Iranian foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, that he was “more than ready to walk away” on the Sunday before the deal was clinched, a point when negotiators were struggling to overcome the final hurdles. “So we had no compunctions about it whatsoever,” he added.

Kerry said had “walked away” during talks in London, when Iran “started fudging numbers they’d already agreed to and they moved backward” and again, later, “when we were in another set of talks in Lausanne [Switzerland]”.

“President Obama, in almost every conversation, would say, ‘remember John, you can walk away’,” he said. In a sarcastic aside, the secretary added: “I suppose we were so eager, that’s why it took four years to negotiate.”

The Obama administration insists the deal is a robust agreement based on verification over trust that will prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear bomb and force the country to submit to unprecedented surveillance. They also insist that if Tehran is found to be in breach of the accord, the sanctions will snap back into place.

However, the deal has been met with scorn in Washington, including from some Democratic hawks who believe the administration lowered its bar by agreeing to a deal that will result in Tehran receiving more than $100bn in unfrozen assets and, over time, permission to acquire arms and ballistic missiles.

The prospects of congressional critics securing the two-thirds majority required to overcome Obama’s promised veto are, however, slim. Such an outcome, which would force the hand of the White House, would require about 42 Democrats in the House and a dozen Democratic senators to vote against the president.

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That prospect is unlikely but not impossible, and even if Republicans fall short of that target, they can still severely undercut the credibility of the agreement by using their control of both the House and Senate to pass legislation, with a straight majority, to register the legislature’s disapproval of the agreement.

That would embolden the slate of Republican presidential contenders promising to undermine the nuclear agreement if they are elected in 2016.

On Tuesday former Florida governor Jeb Bush, one of the leading candidates for the Republican 2016 nomination, said he believed the Senate “will have a chance” to muster the votes to kill the deal. “I hope that they get to an override number so there’s a clear and compelling signal from the voice of the people or elected officials that this the wrong approach,” he told a radio interviewer.

“Freeing up fresh capital for the mullahs and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard would be an unmitigated disaster. Can you imagine with 100 to 150 billion dollars of new cash what they’ll do to undermine the region, what they’ll do to repress their own people, what they’ll do to advance?”



Unlike other GOP candidates, Bush has not said explicitly that he would reinstate sanctions if elected. “There’s a lot of work that will have to be done, but I don’t believe in January of 2017 you’re going to have an Iran that is peaceful and is complying with this agreement and so over time we’re going to have to show our leadership again,” he added.



The White House is working hard to convince Democrats not to join Republican critics, largely by focusing on what officials say would be the dire consequences should the deal now fall apart.

Iran nuclear deal: the key points Read more

They say the coalition of six world powers that used sanctions to force Iran to the negotiating table, which includes China, Russia and European countries, would disintegrate. Tehran would then be free to develop its nuclear program unimpeded.

“To scotch the deal, to get rid of it – arbitrarily, unilaterally – would be to make the world a more dangerous place,” Kerry said.

“Iran will say, ‘aha, you see!’ The ayatollah will say, ‘I told you, you can’t trust the west. I told you, you can’t negotiate with these guys. They will lie to you, they will cheat you, and here they are – they led us down the path and the Congress walked away’.”

“And our European allies will walk away saying, ‘well, we tried our best … And they’ll cut their own deal. We’re finished. I’m telling you, the US will have lost all credibility.”

Kerry repeated Obama’s recent warning that rejection of the deal would inevitably spiral toward a military engagement in the Middle East. “You are right into conflict,” he said, “with presidential candidates screaming at Obama: ‘What are you going to do now? You’ve got to bomb them! You’ve got to use military force!’”

Kerry and other top administration officials will spend the coming weeks and months on Capitol Hill defending the deal, which is subject to a two-month congressional review.