John Kerry: Iran Doesn’t Want To ‘Wipe [Israel] Off The Map’

With the ultimate fate of Barack Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran hanging in the balance, radio host Rush Limbaugh is suggesting four Americans held in the Islamic Republic will be released as part of a secret agreement.

William Saletan had an incisive piece recently at Slate entitled “Please Stop Talking, John Kerry”.

As the Associated Press reported on Tuesday evening, U.S. legislators failed to act within the 90-day review period which expired last Friday. That $55 billion is in India, China, Abu Dhabi. Kuwait recently bought 28 F-18 Super Hornets. (Iran, soon to be relieved of sanctions, has a deal with Russia for a missile-defense system and is eyeing French and Russian fighters.).

As history shows, the JCPOA does not provide a reason to rest easy.

Gillibrand outlined what she said were the deal’s flaws, including advance notice of up ro 24 days of inspections in non-authorized nuclear sites and the lifting of United Nations embargoes on arms sales in five and eight years.

What were the triggers?

But it’s also the day the world changed. Saudis were also on edge over the terrorist threat from Yemen and had started building a 10-foot-high, 50-mile border wall (it was later abandoned). If you don’t get it, your deal is going to fall apart and your negotiating counterpart is going to feel betrayed.

More recently, the monarchies were spooked by the Arab Spring uprisings. Bahrain’s government, which was so threatened by the revolutionary movement that Saudi tanks rolled in to quell demonstrations, upped military spending that year by 26 percent.

Under the agreement, Iran accepts limits on its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief that could help strengthen its economy. Will our troops in Afghanistan be attacked?

In some respects, however, Iran is more daunting on paper than on the battlefield. The Cold War was defined by violent proxy wars across the globe, even as the United States and Soviet Union built agreements to restrain the use of their most powerful weapons. What would the critics do to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon? That doesn’t mean it will happen this month or ten years from now.

“I operate on the presumption that Iran is a fundamental danger, that they are engaged in negative activities throughout the [Middle East] region, that they’re destabilizing places, and that they consider Israel a fundamental enemy at this moment in time”, Kerry said.

Goldberg: Do you believe that Iranian leaders sincerely seek the elimination of the Jewish state? “We all need to be true to the principal that although money may be used for many things, we must never allow a price tag to be placed on the heart and soul and the mind of a living person”.

“The relationship between the U.S. and Israel is strong and unbreakable, but there is this issue that we disagree on”, he said. Second, it has the potential to threaten the “qualitative military edge” that the U.S.is obligated by law to give Israel over its numerically superior neighbors. If the U.S. tries to go back to the bargaining table, it will be a table for one. And, he said the Obama administration is committed to reducing existing stockpiles of atomic bombs in negotiations with Russian Federation.

Congress has until September 17 to approve or reject the pact. He said that deal would reduce the possibility of more nuclear weapons.

Further, the deal marks a step towards a desperately needed weapons of mass destruction-free zone in the Middle East, a goal endorsed by the United States and the UN Security Council in 1991 but which Israel continues to oppose.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners. Why decry it now that it’s finally happening?