Vietnam – U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Friday he “profoundly disagrees” with the reasoning behind decisions by two prominent Democratic lawmakers to vote against the nuclear deal he negotiated with Iran.
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Speaking in the Vietnamese capital, Kerry said the facts do not bear out the arguments made by the Senate’s No. 3 Democrat Chuck Schumer, and the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Eliot Engel. He said he respects the right of lawmakers to make their own decisions about the merits of the deal, but said rejection does not offer any alternative than a drumbeat to conflict.
Schumer and Engel, both from New York, made their announcements on Thursday. Schumer is the first Democratic senator to say he will vote no on the deal, which would curb Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for billions of dollars in relief from crippling sanctions.
Schumer, who is Jewish, complained that the pact does not allow inspections “anywhere, anytime” and that the United States cannot demand inspections unilaterally.
Kerry said he has great respect for both Engel and Schumer, and called Schumer a friend, noting he served with him in the Senate.
“I obviously profoundly disagree with the judgements made,” Kerry said. He said that with 25 years of uranium tracking, “it is physically impossible to build a bomb.”
“It’s a question of eliminating options in a realistic way,” he added. “I would respectfully suggest that rejection is not a policy for the future, it does not offer any alternative.”
Kerry said that if the deal is rejected, “there will be a hue and cry about Iran’s continued activity and that will lead people to put pressure on military action since the United States would have walked away from the diplomatic solution.”
Big Deal, what do you expect? A sellout of America, Israel, and the world.
Bal Kerri is a traitor to the United States,and will close his eyes to anything against his treachorus “deal”
Sanctions were working,and Arab pressure with oil was working in bringing Iran to the table,and the USA should be dealing from strength with the Iranians,not begging from the knees and cow-towing to every Iranian whim especially when it makes no sense
It is refreshing and deserving of our total respect to see Senator Schumer and Congressman Engel make the right move and with strong backbone they have stood up against this insane president Behaima,and we must support them for standing up and taking a hit,politically and publicly for doing so !!
It really is true,that Senator Schumer is our “shomer’ in the Senate,and we must show our hakoras hatov to him and to Congressman Engel, and to all those who have stood up to this insane “deal”especially on election day.
the “REAL” question that needs to be asked?
The Iranians have over 2,000 years of experience negotiating
in the Bazaar. Where did Kerry hone his skills? Was it protesting
the Vietnam War or romancing Theresa Heinz a recent widow?
AP, why is it necessary/newsworthy to say: “… Schumer, who is Jewish …”?
Are you trying to hint that since he is Jewish he voted against the deal because Israel might be targeted by Iranian nuclear weapons, and that, if he were not Jewish he might have voted for this (i.e. no Jewish interest)?
To me, this sounds like a backhanded way of accusing Schumer of having divided loyalty, an old anti-semitic canard.
To put this into perspective, is John Kerry referred as “Kerry, who is Catholic”?
(even though he has a Jewish grandmother!) Is BHO referred to as “Obama, who is Xian”?
Shame on you.
swift boad Kerry is back in Vietnam? Can you imagine if this half Jew was elected president he might’ve been even more anti-Semitic than Obama, I know hard to believe.
I give Schumer a lot of credit for declaring his position. He has sacrificed all his democrat capital, committing political suicide for the sake of Israel
Why do they always point out when someone is a Jew in the Media?
Why does the New York Times have a front page article today about Jewish fanatics?
הן עם לבדד ישכון – We have no friends!
When the Iranians test their first nuke, Kerry can throw his Nobel Prize medal over the White House fence.
Kerry is Obama’s man and Obama has shown he doesn’t hold sacred America’s traditions and values. Obama worked hard to undue all the last 70 years of military might in eyes of the world.
Can America recover???
Scary to think that this man was almost president.
Does anyone really think that Schumer would dare not support the president on a key vote if he did not have the OK from the top to do so? Schumer knows a yes vote will hurt him badly with his reelection chances and his defection will not defeat the measure. Further, if Schumer were *really* against the deal, he would forbid his lapdog, Kristin Gillenbrand (a/k/a “the shiksa”) from voting yes. He’s given her direction to vote “yes” while he votes “no.” Thus he saves himself, and Obama.