Back Iran nuclear deal or face dire consequences - Kerry

TEHRAN (PNA/IRNA) — The United States risks a collapse in its future negotiating credibility if it walks away from the Iranian nuclear deal, according to US secretary of state John Kerry, who argues Congress now has little choice but to back the plan.

According to the Guardian, in his starkest warning yet to critics on Capitol Hill, Kerry also predicted the international coalition behind economic sanctions would quickly collapse and leave Iran even closer to developing an atomic bomb if the US sought to renegotiate terms.

One hundred senators and 535 members of the House of Representatives will vote in September on whether to oppose the deal struck by the coalition in Vienna, which proposes lifting sanctions in exchange for increased inspections and various restrictions on Iran’s nuclear activities.

But with skeptical Republicans struggling to persuade enough Democrats to join them in overriding a presidential veto, Kerry painted a bleak picture of the alternative options during four hours of heated testimony before the House foreign affairs committee on Tuesday.

“If Congress rejects this, Iran goes back to its enrichment. The Ayatollah will not come back to the table ... the sanctions regime completely falls apart,” he said.

“We will have set ourselves back. I don’t know how I go out to another country if that happens and say: ‘Hey, you ought to negotiate with us,’ because they will say: ‘Well, you have 535 secretaries of state in the United States. We don’t know who we are negotiating with. Whatever deal we make always risks being overturned.’”