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 Testifying publicly before Congress for the first time since world
powers reached the landmark accord with Iran last week, America's
top diplomat was confronted head-on by Republican accusations that
Iranian negotiators had "fleeced" and "bamboozled" him.
The vitriolic exchanges at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee,
which Kerry once chaired, reflected a hardening of positions as
Congress opened a 60-day review of the deal considered crucial to
its fate.
Iranian hardliners are also trying to undermine the pact, which U.S.
ally Israel calls a dire security threat.
Kerry insisted critics of the agreement, which curbs Iran’s nuclear
program in return for sanctions relief, are pushing an alternative
he dismissed as a "sort of unicorn arrangement involving Iran's
complete capitulation."
"The fact is that Iran now has extensive experience with nuclear
fuel cycle technology," the former senator said. "We can't bomb that
knowledge away. Nor can we sanction that knowledge away."
On crutches from a cycling accident, Kerry entered the hearing room
to cheers from the anti-war group Code Pink.
 Kerry said that if Congress rejects the accord, "the result will be
the United States of America walking away from every one of the
restrictions we have achieved, and a great big green light for Iran
to double the pace of its uranium enrichment."
"We will have squandered the best chance we have to solve this
problem through peaceful means," he said.
The 4-1/2-hour-long hearing was part of an intense Obama
administration push to convince Democrats in particular to back the
deal. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew and Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz
also testified.
The three cabinet secretaries briefed the full House of
Representatives and Senate behind closed doors on Wednesday and met
privately with House Democrats after Thursday's hearing.
Other senior administration officials, including President Barack
Obama, have also been talking to undecided lawmakers. About a dozen
met with him at the White House on Thursday.
Opening the hearing on a contentious note, the committee’s
Republican chairman, Bob Corker, criticized Kerry for the terms he
negotiated. "I believe that you’ve been fleeced," he said.
Another Republican, Jim Risch, said he had been "bamboozled."
Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer called such accusations
"disrespectful and insulting."
Corker chided Kerry and other administration officials for
contending that the only alternative to the accord would be more war
in the Middle East, saying the real alternative would be a better
deal.
Kerry strongly disagreed.
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RUBIO: DEAL NOT GUARANTEED BEYOND OBAMA'S TERM
Senator Marco Rubio faulted Obama for rewarding Iran for "its
atrocious human rights record."
"This is a deal whose survival is not guaranteed beyond the current
term of the president," said Rubio, a 2016 Republican presidential
candidate.
Senator Ben Cardin, the top Democrat on the committee, said he has
not yet decided how he would vote but that he felt "our negotiators
got an awful lot."
Under a bill Obama reluctantly signed into law in May, Congress has
until Sept. 17 to approve or reject the agreement. Republicans hold
majorities in both houses of Congress, and many have come out
strongly against the pact, which they say will empower Iran and
threaten Israel.
Obama, who could boost his presidential legacy from his diplomatic
outreach to Iran, needs his fellow Democrats.
If a "disapproval" resolution passes and survives Obama's veto, he
would be unable to waive most of the U.S. sanctions imposed on Iran,
which could cripple the nuclear pact.
Responding to criticism that sanctions would be lifted too quickly,
Lew said it would not prevent the United States from imposing
additional sanctions over issues such as human rights violations if
deemed necessary.
Moniz, seeking to counter criticism of "loopholes" in the nuclear
inspections regime, said: "I am confident that the technical
underpinnings of this deal are solid."
Seeking to reassure Israel and its U.S. supporters, Kerry said
Washington would increase security coordination. Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu has expressed concerns that Iran will use
unfrozen assets to increase funding and weapons to militant groups
such as Hamas and Hezbollah.
Kerry said the Iran deal carried the "real potential" for change in
the Middle East but acknowledged it "does not end the possibility of
a confrontation with Iran."
(Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu, Idrees Ali and David
Brunnstrom; Writing by Matt Spetalnick; Editing by James Dalgleish)
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