Over 100 former US ambassadors send Obama letter praising Iran nuclear deal
JPOST.COM STAFF/07/18/2015
Earlier this week it was revealed that over 100 former US ambassadors sent a letter to President Barack Obama expressing their support for the “landmark agreement” struck between world powers and Iran. “The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with Iran stands as a landmark agreement in deterring the proliferation of nuclear weapons,” the letter begins. “Without your determination and the admirable work of Secretary of State Kerry and his team, this agreement would never have been reached.”Notable signatories of the document included former under secretary of state Nicholas Burns; Daniel Kurtzer, the former envoy to Israel and Egypt; and Thomas Pickering, the former ambassador to Israel, Russia, India, and the United Nations. Madeleine Albright, who served as secretary of state in the Clinton administration, also penned a piece for TIME magazine in which she wrote favorably of the deal on the same day the letter was released Thursday. “We recognize that the JCPOA is not a perfect or risk-free settlement of this problem,” the letter states. “However, we believe without it, the risks to the security of the United States and our friends and allies would be far greater.”According to the ambassadors, the agreement reached achieved its most imperative goal: Iranian nuclear nonproliferation and security for the Middle East, especially Israel.”Effective diplomacy backed by credible defense will be critically important now, during the period of inspection and verification of Iran’s compliance with the agreement.”
Obama calls critics of Iran nuclear deal ‘overheated and dishonest’
REUTERS/07/18/2015
US President Barack Obama on Saturday defended the historic nuclear deal made with Iran last week and warned that some critics of the agreement will offer the American people “dishonest arguments” against the accord in the weeks ahead. “There’s a reason this deal took so long to negotiate. Because we refused to accept a bad deal. We held out for a deal that met every one of our bottom lines. And we got it,” Obama said during his weekly address to the American people. “This deal will make America and the world safer and more secure. Still, you’re going to hear a lot of overheated and often dishonest arguments about it in the weeks ahead,” he said. Obama has run into a storm of accusations from Republican lawmakers and Israel that he gave away too much to Tehran and is seeking to sell the Iran nuclear deal to skeptical US lawmakers and nervous allies, insisting the landmark agreement was the only alternative to a nuclear arms race and more war in the Middle East.
“Does this deal resolve all of the threats Iran poses to its neighbors and the world? No. Does it do more than anyone has done before to make sure Iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon? Yes. And that was our top priority from the start,” Obama continued. Obama has vowed to veto any effort to block the deal and although he faces a tough challenge in the Republican-controlled Congress, he is expected to prevail. The agreement is a triumph for Obama, who has made outreach to America’s enemies a hallmark of his presidency, but it is also seen as his biggest foreign policy gamble since taking office in 2009.
